ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1992.57-243

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Behavior dynamics is a field devoted to analytic descriptions of behavior change. A principal source of both models and methods for these descriptions is found in physics. This approach is an extension of a long conceptual association between behavior analysis and physics. A theme common to both is the role of molar versus molecular events in description and prediction. Similarities and differences in how these events are treated are discussed. Two examples are presented that illustrate possible correspondence between mechanical and behavioral systems. The first demonstrates the use of a mechanical model to describe the molar properties of behavior under changing reinforcement conditions. The second, dealing with some features of concurrent schedules, focuses on the possible utility of nonlinear dynamical systems to the description of both molar and molecular behavioral events as the outcome of a deterministic, but chaotic, process.

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1992.57-249

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The variability in the behavioral equilibrium established by six basic schedules was characterized. The measures were the pause preceding the first response in each interreinforcement interval; the mean rate of responding in each interreinforcement interval; and the relative frequency of each interresponse time. The temporal windows ranged across the 780‐session exposure, across a session, and across the interreinforcement interval. A display of individual interresponse times as a function of time in the interreinforcement interval indicated clear recurrent responding at somewhat less than 3 Hz in every bird, even after extended exposure to a schedule and regardless of the contingency. No strong sequential dependencies in the interresponse‐time distributions were identified. A simulator, based on a simple recurrent pulser, was presented that produced output similar to the obtained data. An archival data base of the behavior chronically maintained by the simple schedules was also genera

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1992.57-267

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

A computational processing behavior‐dynamic model was instantiated in the form of a computer program that “behaved” on the task developed by Nevin (1969). In this classic discrete‐trials experiment, the relative frequency of choosing a response alternative matched the relative frequency of reinforcement for that alternative, the local structure of responding was opposite that predicted by momentary maximizing (i.e., the probability of a changeover decreased with run length), and absolute and relative response rates varied independently. The behavior‐dynamic model developed here qualitatively reproduced these three results (but not in quantitative and specific detail) and also generated some interesting, as‐yet‐untested predictions about performance in Nevin's task. The model was discussed as an example of a stochastic behavior‐dynamic alternative to algebraic

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1992.57-289

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Behavioral momentum is the product of response rate and resistance to change. The data on relative resistance to change are summarized for pigeons responding on single‐key two‐component multiple schedules, in the initial links of two‐key multiple chained schedules, and in equivalent components of two‐key serial schedules. For single‐key procedures, the ratio of resistance to change in two schedule components is shown to depend on the ratio of reinforcer rates obtained in the presence of the component stimuli. For two‐key procedures, the ratio of resistance to change in equivalent components is shown to depend on the ratio of reinforcer rates correlated with key locations. A model based on stimulus‐reinforcer contingencies that combines the reinforcer rates in schedule components summed over key locations and reinforcer rates correlated with key locations summed over components, each expressed relative to the session average reinforcer rate, gives a good account of the data. An extension of the relative law of effect for multiple schedules fails to provide a complete account of resistance to change, but both approaches are needed for a comprehensive understanding of behavi

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1992.57-301

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Three experiments using multiple schedules of reinforcement explored the implications of resistance‐to‐change findings for the response‐reinforcer relation described by the law of effect, using both steady‐state responding and responding recorded in the first few sessions of conditions. In Experiment 1, when response‐independent reinforcement was increased during a third component, response rate in Components 1 and 2 decreased. This response‐rate reduction was proportionately greater in a component in which reinforcer magnitude was small (2‐s access to wheat) than in the component in which it was large (6‐s access to wheat). However, when reinforcer rates in the two components were varied together in Experiments 2 and 3, response‐rate change was the same regardless of the magnitude of reinforcers used in the two components, so that sensitivity of response rates to reinforcer rates (Experiment 2) and of response‐rate ratios to reinforcer‐rate ratios (Experiment 3) was unaffected by the magnitude of the reinforcers. Therefore, the principles determining resistance to change, described by behavioral momentum theory, seem not to apply when the source of behavior change is the variation of reinforcement contingencies that maintain the behavior. The use of extinction as a manipulation to study resistance to

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1992.57-317

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Fixed‐interval schedule performance is characterized by high levels of variability. Responding is absent at the onset of the interval and gradually increases in frequency until reinforcer delivery. Measures of behavior also vary drastically and unpredictably between successive intervals. Recent advances in the study of nonlinear dynamics have allowed researchers to study irregular and unpredictable behavior in a number of fields. This paper reviews several concepts and techniques from nonlinear dynamics and examines their utility in predicting the behavior of pigeons responding to a fixed‐interval schedule of reinforcement. The analysis provided fairly accurate a priori accounts of response rates, accounting for 92.8% of the variance when predicting response rate 1 second in the future and 64% of the variance when predicting response rates for each second over the entire next interreinforcer interval. The nonlinear dynamics account suggests that even the “noisiest” behavior might be the product of purely deterministic mec

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1992.57-339

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Finding a theoretically sound feedback function for variable‐interval schedules remains an important unsolved problem. It is important because interval schedules model a significant feature of the world: the dependence of reinforcement on factors beyond the organism's control. The problem remains unsolved because no feedback function yet proposed satisfies all the theoretical and empirical requirements. Previous suggestions that succeed in fitting data fail theoretically because they violate a newly recognized theoretical requirement: The slope of the function must approach or equal 1.0 at the origin. A function is presented that satisfies all requirements but lacks any theoretical justification. This function and two suggested by Prelec and Herrnstein (1978) and Nevin and Baum (1980) are evaluated against several sets of data. All three fitted the data well. The success of the two theoretically incorrect functions raises an empirical puzzle: Low rates of reinforcement are coupled with response rates that seem anomalously high. It remains to be discovered what this reflects about the temporal patterning of operant behavior at low reinforcement rates. A theoretically and empirically correct function derived from basic assumptions about operant behavior also remains to be discovere

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1992.57-365

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

In this paper we present an abbreviated discussion of the linear systems analysis in the time domain. We then consider the qualitative character of the behavioral dynamics predicted using the linear form of the analysis. The analysis is then extended to a second‐order form. We illustrate some relevant new features introduced by the second‐order form with a special case exam

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1992.57-377

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Parallel and serial timing processes are analyzed for their account of the dynamics of intertrial responding in the peak procedure. A strictly serial model, such as the behavioral theory of timing (Killeen&Fetterman, 1988), does not fit the dynamic correlation pattern in the location and duration of the middle high‐rate responding portion of peak trials. In contrast, the parallel scalar expectancy theory model, with a sample for memory and threshold, does fit this pattern. A modification of the serial model is presented that also accommodates the within‐trial covariance pattern. The modification, which is formally equivalent to a model for human tapping (Wing&Kristofferson, 1973), entails the addition of concurrent processes operating in parallel with serial tim

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1992.57-393

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY