Dartmouth Events

Please join us in Moore BO3 on Friday, October 14, at 4 p.m., as our Leaton Lecturer,  Mark Bouton, Ph.D.,  Robert B. Lawson Green and Gold Professor of Psychology at University of Vermont, presents  “Contextual Control of Instrumental Behavior and its Inhibition.”

Abstract:  Instrumental behavior is strongly influenced by its context. After a behavior is learned, a context switch can weaken responding, and when a behavior is suppressed by extinction or punishment, a context switch reduces the inhibition and initiates relapse. Contexts seem especially important in controlling habits, although they can influence goal-directed actions under some conditions. In extinction, they appear to inhibit the response directly. New experiments on renewal, resurgence, and heterogeneous behavior chains further suggest that “context” can include physical background, motivational state, recent reinforcers, and other behaviors. Theoretical and translational implications will be discussed.

A reception will follow outside of Moore 202.