• • President of the Eastern Psychological Association (2005-2006)

  • Fullbright Scholar/Researcher at Pavlov Medical University, St. Petersburg, Russia

  • Thirty years of NIMH Extramural Research Grants

  • NIMH and NSF Fellowships

  • American Psychological Association, Elected Fellow of: Division 3 (Experimental Psychology) Division 25 (Experimental Analysis of Behavior)

  • Elected to Board of Directors, Eastern Psychological Association

  • B.F. Skinner Lecturer, Association for Behavior Analysis

  • Keynote Speaker, International Society Investigating Drugs as Reinforcers

Title: Incentive Properties of Abused Drugs

Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH)

Amount of Award: $1.400,000. (second renewal)

Effective Dates: August 2009 through August 2014

Psychologists Land NIH Grant for Study of Drug Addiction

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 expectation outcome 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.

Invited Fulbright Lectures

Pavlov Medical University, St. Petersburg, Russia. OPERANT AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: A POINT NATURAL OF INTERSECTION

Recent Presentations   

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.   

RESEARCH INTERESTS

His current research concentrates on:

• • Stimulus Control of Behavior

  • Incentive Motivation

  • Drugs and Behavior

  • Animal Learning Models of Drug Abuse

  • Biological Constraints on Learning

  • Two-Process Learning Theory

  • Appetitive-Aversive Interaction Theory of Motivation

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. Pavlov Medical University Press, St. Petersberg (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.

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.