摘要:

The bias (B′H) and discriminability (A′) of college students' self‐reports about choices made in a delayed identity matching‐to‐sample task were studied as a function of characteristics of the response about which they reported. Each matching‐to‐sample trial consisted of two, three, or four simultaneously presented sample stimuli, a 1‐s retention interval, and two, three, or four comparison stimuli. One sample stimulus was always reproduced among the comparisons, and choice of the matching comparison in less than 800 ms produced points worth chances in a drawing for money. After each choice, subjects pressed either a “yes” or a “no” button to answer a computer‐generated query about whether the choice met the point contingency. The number of sample and comparison stimuli was manipulated across experimental conditions. Rates of successful matching‐to‐sample choices were negatively correlated with the number of matching‐to‐sample stimuli, regardless of whether samples or comparisons were manipulated. As in previous studies, subjects exhibited a pronounced bias for reporting successful responses. Self‐report bias tended to become less pronounced as matching‐to‐sample success became less frequent, an outcome consistent with signal‐frequency effects in psychophysical research. The bias was also resistant to change, suggesting influences other than signal frequency that remain to be identified. Self‐report discriminability tended to decrease with the number of sample stimuli and increase with the number of comparison stimuli, an effect not attributable to differential effects of the two manipulations on matching‐to‐sample performance. Overall, bias and discriminability indices revealed effects that were not evident in self‐report accuracy scores. The results indicate that analyses based on signal‐detection theory can improve the description of correspondence between self‐reports and their referents and thus contribute to the identification of envi

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1993.60-495

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study is an exploration of the parameters of delayed reinforcement with 6 infants (2 to 6 months old) in two experiments using single‐subject repeated‐reversal designs. In Experiment 1, unsignaled 3‐s delayed reinforcement was used to increase infant vocalization rate when compared to a differential‐reinforcement‐of‐other‐than‐vocalization condition and a yoked, no‐contingency comparison condition. In Experiment 2, unsignaled 5‐s delayed reinforcement was used to increase infant vocalization rate when compared to an alternating‐treatments comparison condition. The alternating‐treatments comparison consisted of 3‐min components of differential reinforcement of other behavior and 3‐min components of a nontreatment baseline. Successful conditioning was obtained in both experiments. These results contrast with those of previous infancy researchers who did not obtain conditioning with delays of 3 s and who attributed their findings to the limitations of the infant's memory capacity. We present an alternative conceptual framework and methodology for the analysis of delay

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1993.60-515

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Three experiments were conducted to investigate stimulus relations that might emerge when college students are taught relations between compound sample stimuli and unitary comparison stimuli using match‐to‐sample procedures. In Experiment 1, subjects were taught nine AB‐C stimulus relations, then tested for the emergence of 18 AC‐B and BC‐A relations. All subjects showed the emergence of all tested relations. Twelve subjects participated in Experiment 2. Six subjects were taught nine AB‐C relations and were then tested for symmetrical (C‐AB) relations. Six subjects were taught nine AB‐C and three C‐D relations and were then tested for nine AB‐D (transitive) relations. Five of 6 subjects demonstrated the emergence of symmetrical relations, and 6 subjects showed the emergence of transitivity. In Experiment 3, 5 college students were taught nine AB‐C and three C‐D relations and were then tested for nine equivalence (D‐AB) relations and 18 AD‐B and BD‐A relations. Three subjects demonstrated all tested relations. One subject demonstrated the AD‐B and BD‐A relations but not the D‐AB relations. One subject did not respond systematically during testing. The results of these experiments extend stimulus equival

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1993.60-529

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Two experiments examined the effects of session duration on responding during simple variable‐interval schedules. In Experiment 1, rats were exposed to a series of simple variable‐interval schedules differing in both session duration (10 min or 30 min) and scheduled reinforcement rate (7.5 s, 15 s, 30 s, and 480 s). The functions relating response rate to reinforcement rate were predominantly monotonic for the short (10‐min) sessions but were predominantly bitonic for the long (30‐min) sessions, when data from the entire session were considered. Examination of responding within sessions suggested that differences in the whole‐session data were produced by a combination of prospective processes (i.e., processes based on events scheduled to occur later in the session) and retrospective processes (i.e., processes based on events that had already occurred in the session). In Experiment 2, rats were exposed to a modified discrimination procedure in which pellet flavor (standard or banana) predicted session duration (10 min or 30 min). All rats came to respond faster during the short (10‐min) sessions than during the first 10 min of the long sessions. As in Experiment 1, the results seemed to reflect the simultaneous operation of both prospective and retrospective processes. The results shed light on the recent controversy over the form of the variable‐interval response function by identifying one variable (session duration) and two types of processes (prospective and retrospective) that influence responding on th

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1993.60-543

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

In two experiments, thirsty rats licked an empty spout instrumentally for water delivered at a neighboring spout. Each such pair of spouts constituted a work station, and one, two, or three stations were available in the test enclosure. In 1‐hr sessions, the rats worked alone or in the company of 1 or 2 other rats, and performed either five, 10, or 40 licks at the empty spout for each water delivery. The total number of empty‐spout licks, summed across rats and stations, increased with the empty‐lick requirement and, with some exceptions, the number of rats in the enclosure and the number of work stations available. A Cobb—Douglas production function, with instrumental responding as an output and the three independent variables as inputs, accounted for a significant percentage of the variance. Contrary to that function, output failed to increase with additional rats (or work stations) when the number of work stations (or rats) was relativel

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1993.60-559

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

In Experiment 1, 3 subjects with retardation were exposed to two visual‐visual arbitrary matching‐to‐sample problems each day. One conditional discrimination was presented under trial‐and‐error conditions, and the other was presented under a component training procedure. The latter began by establishing the comparison discrimination and its rapid reversal. The successive discrimination between the sample stimuli was established through differential naming. Then, sample naming was maintained in conditional discrimination sessions in which the same sample was presented in blocks of consecutive trials. Block size was decreased across sessions until sample presentation was randomized as in trial‐and‐error training (but with naming maintained). Two subjects initially learned only with component training. The performance of the 3rd subject was inconsistent across conditional discriminations. One of the successful subjects ultimately learned rapidly and consistently with trial‐and‐error procedures. Experiment 2 sought to demonstrate learning set in the other 2 subjects. Elements of the component training procedure were withdrawn over successive conditional discriminations. Ultimately, 1 subject nearly always learned under trial‐and‐error conditions, and the other learned under trial‐and‐error conditions combined with d

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1993.60-571

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Pigeons were exposed to a concurrent‐chains schedule in which a single variable‐interval 30‐s schedule was used in the initial links and fixed‐time schedules were used in the terminal links. Three types of keylight conditions were used in the terminal links. In the first condition, different delays were associated with different keylight stimuli (cued condition). In the second condition, different delays were associated with the same stimulus, either a blackout (uncued blackout condition) or a white key (uncued white condition). Paired values of terminal‐link fixed‐time schedules differed by a constant ratio of 3:1, while the absolute value of delays was varied from 3 s to 54 s. The results showed that choice proportions for the shorter of two delays increased when the absolute size of the delays was increased for all keylight conditions. Further, the choice proportions for the shorter delay increased from the uncued blackout condition, to the uncued white condition, to the cued condition. A modified version of Fantino's (1969) delay‐reduction model (expressed as a function relating the response ratio to the delay‐reduction ratio) can be applied to these data by showing that sensitivity to delay reduction increased from the uncued blackout condition, to the uncued white condition, to the cued condition. Thus, the present study demonstrated that a modified version of the delay‐reduction model can be used to assess quantitative differences in the terminal‐link keylight condition in terms of sensitivity to delay reduction (i.e., the conditioned reinforcing value of the terminal‐l

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1993.60-587

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Six domestic hens were trained in a spatial discrimination task. A controlled reinforcement procedure insured that the ratio of scheduled and obtained reinforcement remained equal. Gray stimuli and gratings ranging in spatial frequency from 1 to 10 cycles per millimeter were presented in seven descending series of probes. The response requirement to the sample key was varied from fixed ratio 1 to fixed ratio 40 in seven experimental conditions. An increase in response requirements from fixed ratio 1 to fixed ratio 5 and fixed ratio 10 resulted in significantly higher accuracy at discriminable grating values. Further increases in response requirements did not consistently improve performance. Generally, response biases increased and occasionally became extreme for probes at finer gratings with increased response requirements.

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1993.60-595

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Lever pressing in rats was maintained by continuous and intermittent schedules of food while defecation was monitored. In Experiment 1, reinforcement densities were matched across variable‐ratio and variable‐interval schedules for three pairs of rats. Defecation occurred in all 3 rats on the variable‐ratio schedule and in all 3 rats on the yoked variable‐interval schedule. In Experiment 2, fixed‐ratio and fixed‐interval schedules with similar reinforcement densities maintained lever pressing. Defecation occurred in 3 of 4 rats on the fixed‐ratio schedule and in 4 of 4 rats on the fixed‐interval schedule. Almost no defecation occurred during continuous reinforcement in either experiment. These results demonstrate that defecation may occur during both ratio and interval schedules and that the interreinforcement interval is more important than the behavioral requirements of the schedule in generating schedule‐i

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1993.60-611

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

When the procedure is held constant within an experimental session, responding often changes systematically within that session. Many of these within‐session changes in responding cannot be dismissed as learning curves or by‐products of satiation. They have been observed in studies of positive reinforcement, avoidance, punishment, extinction, discrimination, delayed matching to sample, concept formation, maze and alley running, and laboratory analogues of foraging, as well as in the unconditioned substrates of conditioned behavior. When aversive stimuli are used, responding usually increases early in the session. When positive reinforcers are used, responding changes in a variety of ways, including increasing, decreasing, and bitonic functions. Both strong and minimal reinforcement procedures produce within‐session decreases in positively reinforced behavior. Within‐session changes in responding have substantial theoretical and methodological implications for research in condi

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1993.60-621

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY