Current
Research Support
NIDA award reported in AU
Today
Title:
Incentive Properties of Abused Drugs
Co-Investigator: David N. Kearns, PhD.
Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH)
Amount of Award: $1,400,000. (second renewal)
Effective Dates: August 2009 - August 2014
Abstract:
Drug-related stimuli can elicit drug craving in drug abusers
and have been implicated in relapse. An important objective of
drug abuse treatment is to reduce or eliminate the control that
these cues have over individuals. The goal of the research proposed
here is to use an animal model to develop procedures that can
be used to effectively treat drug cues. Specifically, we will
investigate techniques for temporarily restoring or amplifying
the expectationoutcome error signal produced by non-reinforcement
as a means of enhancing extinction and conditioned inhibition
of drug seeking. The first aim of the proposed research is to
develop a way to deepen the extinction of drug cues by using
combinations of drug- as well as non-drug- related stimuli to
increase the error signal generated during extinction learning.
A second aim is to create similar procedures that deepen the
conditioned inhibition of drug seeking. A third aim is to deepen
the extinction of drug cues by pharmacologically-reinstating
the effects of a previously extinguished drug cue prior to exposing
that cue to additional, extensive extinction. Achieving these
aims could (1) provide insight into ways of enhancing the extinction
and conditioned inhibition of drug seeking via behavioral and
pharmacological interventions, and (2) form the empirical basis
for the creation of an effective extinction- based treatment
for drug abuse, a major public health problem. PUBLIC HEALTH
RELEVANCE: The proposed research will investigate methods for
reducing and ultimately eliminating the power that drug-associated
stimuli have over drug users. Such stimuli have been shown to
produce drug craving and have been implicated in relapse. Therefore,
this research could lead to the development of effective treatments
for drug abuse, a major public health problem.
Recent
plus Representative Publications
Weiss, S. J., Kearns, D.
N., Schindler, C. W., & Panlilio, L. V. (2010) The stimulus
control of drug self-administration. In A. Y. Bespalov, E. E.
Zvartau, P. M. Beardsley, & J. L. Katz (Eds.), Behavioral
Pharmacology. (Invited book chapter) In press.
Weiss, S. J., Kearns, D.
N., & Antoshina, M. (2009). Within-Subject Reversibility
of the Discriminative Function in the Composite-Stimulus Control
of Behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
In press.
Weiss, S. J. Stimulus Control.
. (2008). In Salkind, N. J (Ed.). The Encyclopedia of Educational
Psychology. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Weiss, S. J., Kearns, D.
N., Christensen, C. J., & Huntsberry, M. E., Schindler, C.
W., & Panlilio, L. V. (2007) Reduction of
Cocaine Seeking by a Food-Based Inhibitor in Rats. Experimental
& Clinical Psychopharmacology, 15, 359-367.
Kearns, D. N., & Weiss,
S. J. (2007). Contextual Renewal of Cocaine Seeking and its attenuation
by the conditioned effects of an alternative reinforcer. Drug
& Alcohol Dependence, 90, 193-202.
Cohn, S. I., & Weiss,
S. J. (2007). Stimulus control and compounding with ambient odor
as a discriminative stimlulus on a free-operant baseline. Journal
of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 87, 261-273.
Weiss, S. J., Reilly, M.,
& Kearns, D. N.. (2005). Associative mechanisms and drug
related behavior. International Journal of Comparative Psychology,
18, (2), 5-7.
Weiss, S. J., Kearns, D.,
Cohn, S., Schindler, C. W., & Panlilio, L. V. (2005). Cocaine
and selective associations: Investigations into a biological
constraint on learning with drug self-administration and shock-avoidance
as reinforcers. International Journal of Comparative Psychology,
18, 112-125..
Kearns, D. N., Weiss, S.
J., Schindler, C. W., & Panlilio, L. V. (2005). Conditioned
inhibition of cocaine self-administration. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 31. 247-253.
Weiss, S. J., Kearns, D.,
Cohn, S., Schindler, C. W., & Panlilio, L. V. (2003). Stimulus
Control of Drug Self-Administration. Journal of the Experimental
Analysis of Behavior, 79, 111-135. (Published as a "Special
Article" by the Journal.)
Panlilio, L. V., Weiss,
S., J., & Schindler, C. W. (2000). Effects of compounding
drug-related stimuli: Escalation of heroin self-administration.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 73, 211-222.
Panlilio, L. V., &
Weiss, S. J., & Schindler, C. W. (1998). Motivational effects
of compounding discriminative stimuli associated with food and
cocaine. Psychopharmacology, 136, 70-74.
Weiss, S. J., Thomas, D.
A., & Weissman, R. D. (1996). Combining operant-baseline
derived conditioned excitors and inhibitors from the same and
different incentive class: An investigation of appetitive-aversive
interactions. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology:
Comparative and Psychology Psychology,.49B, 357-381.
Weiss, S. J., Panlilio,
L. V., & Schindler, C. W. (1993). Single-incentive selective
associations produced solely as a function of compound-stimulus
conditioning context. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal
Behavior Processes, 19, 284-294.
Weiss, S. J., & Weissman,
R. W. (1992). Generalization peakshift for operant and autoshaped
keypecks. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 57,
127-143.
Weiss, S. J., & Schindler,
C. W. (1985). Conditioning history and inhibitory instrumental
stimulus control: Independent-groups and within-subjects measures.
Animal Learning & Behavior, 13, 215-222.
Weiss, S. J. & Dacanay,
R. (1982). Incentive processes and the peak shift. Journal of
the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 37, 441-453.
Weiss, S. J. (1978). Discriminated
response and incentive processes in operant conditioning: A two-factor
model of stimulus control. A integrative theoretical article
in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 30,
361-381. (Published as a Special Article by the Journal.)
Weiss, S. J. (1972). Stimulus
compounding in free-operant and classical conditioning: A review
and analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 78, 189
Invited Fulbright Lectures
(Pavlov
Medical University, St. Petersburg, Russia)
Operant and Classical Conditioning:
A Point Natural of Intersection
- Basic Principles of Operant Learning and
Stimulus Control
- The Instrumentally Derived Incentive-Motive
Function
- Stimulus Control of Free-Operant Avoidance:
Establishing the Discriminative-Response Function
- Algebraic Combination of the Incentive-Motive
and Discriminative-Response Processes
- A Two-Factor Model of Stimulus Control
and Applications to Drug Self-Administration
- The Selective Association Biological Constraint
on Learning and the Incentive-Motive Process:
Investigations with Food, Shock Avoidance and Drug Self Administration
- The Appetitive-Aversive Interaction Theory
of Motivation:
Investigations with Food, Shock-Avoidance and Cocaine Self-Administration
Maintained Behaviors
Recent Presentations
SJW has made over 200 presentations.
Those given in 2007 through September 2009 are listed below.
Kearns, D. N., & Weiss,
S. J. (2007). Recovery of Sign-Tracking in Rats After Response
Elimination Through Negative Contingency Training. Winter Conference
on Animal Learning and Behavior, Winter Park, CO
Weiss, S. J. (2007). An
Induced Two-Factor Model of Stimulus Control. Winter Conference
on Animal Learning and Behavior, Winter Park, CO
Invited Presidential Introduction:
The Extended Mand by Philip HIneline. Eastern Psychological Association,
Philadelphia, 2007.
Invited B. F. Skinner Lecture
(2007): Reinforcement contingencies and incentive motivation:
From food to drug self-administration. Association for Behavior
Analysis, San Diego, CA.
Weiss, S. J., & Kearns,
D. N., & Antoshina, M. (2008). Reversibility of Composite-Stimulus
Control. Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, MA
Weiss, S. J., & Kearns,
D. N., & Christensen, C. J. (2008). How "The Ghost in
the Addict" Can Disrupt Treatment. Winter Conference on
Animal Learning & Behavior, Winter Park, CO.
Invited Address (2008).
Stimulus Control and Differential Reinforcement: Phenomena and
Processes. Conference on Odour Detection in Animals. (Sponsored
by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining.)
Os, Norway.
Weiss, S. J., Kearns, D.
N., & Christensen, C. J. (2009). Conditioning History and
the Conditioned Inhibition of Drug Seeking: The "Ghost in
the Addict" Can Disrupt Treatment. Eastern Psychological
Association, Pittsburgh, PA.
Weiss, S. J., Kearns, D.
N. (2009). Conditioning Context and Resurgence. Winter Conference
on Animal Learning & Behavior, Winter Park, CO.
Weiss, S. J., Kearns, D.
N., & Christensen, C. J. (2009). Evidence of Residual Excitation
After Converting a Cocaine Excitor into a Conditioned Inhibitor.
Society for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior, Phoenix, AZ.
321
Asbury Building (South Wing)
