摘要:

Two subjects with retardation who exhibited generalized identity matching, but who had extensive histories of failure to acquire arbitrary matching, were exposed to a series of conditions designed to train separately the components of a two‐choice conditional discrimination. First, the successive discrimination between the sample stimuli was established by programming a different schedule of reinforcement in the presence of each sample stimulus. Schedule performance was acquired and maintained by both subjects, but neither acquired arbitrary matching. To train the simultaneous discrimination between the comparison stimuli, 1 subject was then exposed to a series of simple discrimination reversals and subsequently failed to acquire arbitrary matching. Both subjects acquired arbitrary matching under a procedure that maintained both the sample and the comparison discrimination by first presenting entire sessions composed of one sample‐comparison relation and then gradually reducing the number of consecutive trials with the same sample until sample presentation was randomized (schedule performance was maintained). Removal of the schedule requirement had no effect on arbitrary matching accuracy. Both subjects subsequently demonstrated control by relations symmetric to the trained relati

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1989.52-1

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1989

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Three students with moderate mental retardation were taught a complex stimulus class with a two‐choice conditional discrimination procedure applied across eight 10‐member stimulus sets. Each set was composed of five age‐appropriate and five age‐inappropriate examples of clothing, accessories, and leisure items (e.g., a Walkman ® radio). Discrimination training was programmed serially across each set, and generalization probes were conducted concurrently among all sets. Generalization probes consisted of unreinforced conditional matching trials with comparison items being drawn from (a) the set undergoing training (within‐set probes), (b) sets not undergoing training (between‐set probes), and (c) both sample and comparison items from different sets (transitive stimulus control probes). Results indicate that within‐set generalization, between‐set generalization, and transitive stimulus relations controlled responding by all 3 students for items that had been contingently associated with reinforcement. However, items that gained control of responding through within‐set and between‐set generalization alone (i.e., not acquired through contingent reinforcement) remained at baseline levels during transitive stimulus control probes. Results are discussed in terms of a taxonomy of multiple sources of stimulus control that underlie socially defined and maintai

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1989.52-13

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1989

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

In two experiments, rats were trained to deposit ball bearings down a hole in the floor, using an algorithmic version of shaping. The experimenter coded responses expected to be precursors of the target response, ball bearing deposit; a computer program reinforced these responses, or not, according to an algorithm that mimicked the processes thought to occur in conventional shaping. In the first experiment, 8 of 10 rats were successfully shaped; in the second, 5 of 5 were successfully shaped, and the median number of sessions required was the same as for a control group trained using conventional shaping. In both experiments, “misbehavior,” that is, excessive handling and chewing of the ball bearings, was observed, and when the algorithmic shaping procedure was used, misbehavior could be shown to occur in spite of reduced reinforcement for the responses invol

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1989.52-27

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1989

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Three mice chose between concurrent variable‐ratio variable‐interval schedules to produce a warm air stream while they were housed in a cold chamber. Across conditions, the duration of the warm air stream was varied between 10 and 80 s and was equal for both schedules. Preference for the VI schedule covaried with reinforcer duration as predicted by maximizing accounts of cho

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1989.52-41

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1989

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The effects of repeated diazepam administration (80 mg) were assessed across a 12‐hr time course with humans responding under a two‐component multiple schedule of repeated acquisition and performance of response sequences. Subjects resided in an inpatient clinical research ward for the duration of the study. In each component of the multiple schedule, subjects completed sequences of 10 responses in a predetermined order using three keys of a numeric keypad. In the acquisition component, a new response sequence was to be acquired each session. In the performance component, the response sequence always remained the same. After stable responding was obtained and the effects of the placebo assessed, diazepam was administered for 3 consecutive days. The effects of repeated diazepam administration on overall percentage of errors across the two components of the multiple schedule were selective. In the acquisition component, the first dose of diazepam increased percentage errors with the magnitude of effects decreasing across the second and third days of diazepam administration. In the performance component, the percentage of errors was either minimally affected across all 3 days of diazepam administration or substantively increased on Day 1 with subsequent diazepam administrations having minimal effects. Effects on response rate were not selective. Diazepam decreased rates of responding in both schedule components, with the magnitude of effects decreasing across successive administrations. These results replicate previous findings in humans and nonhumans on the selective effects of diazepam on acquisition versus performance baselines. Also, the results suggest that the selective effects do not result from differences in reinforcement rate. Finally, the present results demonstrate that the selective recovery from repeated drug administration previously demonstrated in nonhumans using a repeated acquisition arrangement has generality to human behav

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1989.52-47

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1989

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Horner and Staddon (1987) argued that a class of reward‐following processes defined by a property they termedratio invarianceis a better model for the probabilistic choice performance of pigeons than competing molecular accounts such as momentary maximizing, melioration, and the Bush‐Mosteller model. The critical data were provided by choice distributions—distributions of a variableS, the proportion of Right choices, defined on a moving window typically 32 choices long—obtained under afrequency‐dependentschedule. The schedule prescribed equal payoff probabilities,p(S), for both choices.p(S)was a maximum whenS= 0.5 and declined linearly forSvalues above and below 0.5. Pigeons showed generally bimodal choice distributions with the modes at equalp(S)values. These data do not follow easily from melioration or momentary maximizing and are inconsistent with molar maximizing, but they may be consistent with Bush‐Mosteller. We present here the results of computer simulations showing that the ratio‐invariance model studied yields, as expected, choice modes at equalp(S)values, but that Bush‐Mosteller, although capable of generating bimodal choice distributions, does not have choice modes at

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1989.52-57

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1989

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The generalized matching law was initially stated as a nonlinear relation between reinforcement‐rate ratios and response‐rate ratios. Often, the variables of the law are transformed logarithmically to remove the nonlinearity; empirical results are then fit to the model through least‐squares regression. However, the logarithmic expression of the matching law is a biased statistical representation of the law itself. In particular, the logarithmic transformation alters the quantitative conclusions to be drawn from a least‐squares regression analysis. A Monte Carlo study of the effect of transforming matching‐law data demonstrated that (a) the estimates of one or both of the parameters of the generalized matching law are biased, (b) the measure of goodness of fit (R2) is inaccurate, and (c) predictions generated by the fitted parameters are incorrect. Alternative approaches to logarithmic transformations are shown to alleviate these

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1989.52-65

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1989

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1989.52-77

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1989

数据来源: WILEY