摘要:

Two experiments investigated the effect of observing responses that enabled college students to emit more efficient distributions of reinforced responses. In Experiment 1, the gains of response efficiency enabled by observing were minimized through use of identical low‐effort response requirements in two alternating variable‐interval schedules. These comprised a mixed schedule of reinforcement; they differed in the number of money‐backed points per reinforcer. In each of three choices between two stimuli that varied in their correlation with the variable‐interval schedules, the results showed that subjects preferred stimuli that were correlated with the larger average amount of reinforcement. This is consistent with a conditioned‐reinforcement hypothesis. Negative informative stimuli — that is, stimuli correlated with the smaller of two rewards — did not maintain as much observing as stimuli that were uncorrelated with amount of reward. In Experiment 2, savings in effort made possible by producing S— were varied within subjects by alternately removing and reinstating the response‐reinforcement contingency in a mixed variable‐interval/extinction schedule of reinforcement. Preference for an uncorrelated stimulus compared to a negative informative stimulus (S—) decreased for each of six subjects, and usually reversed when observing permitted a more efficient temporal distribution of the responses required for reinforcement; in this case, the responses were pulls on a relatively high‐effort plunger. When observing the S— could not improve response efficiency, subjects again chose the control stimulus. All of these results were inconsistent with the uncerta

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1985.43-289

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Six college undergraduates received programmed concept training on three kinds of intraverbal relations. These relations involved definition, exemplification, and example identification questions. The experimenter presented the questions, the subject answered them in writing, and the experimenter provided specific corrective consequences. After completing the training on a concept, the subject immediately received a test on the concept. The test included novel questions similar to the kind used in training (extension tasks) and question types that were not used in training but which were also considered intraverbal relations (transfer tasks). Training results indicated rapid, errorful responding on example identification tasks and slow, accurate responding on exemplification and definition tasks. Test results indicated rapid, errorful responding on example identification extension tasks; slow, accurate responding on exemplification extension tasks; and slow, errorful responding on definition extension tasks. In testing, differential responding occurred on transfer tasks as a function of the kind of intraverbal training received, and substantially lower levels of performance were obtained on transfer tasks than on extension tasks. It appears that the intraverbal can be subdivided into more specific categories of operants.

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1985.43-301

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

In auditory localization experiments, where the subject observes from a fixed position, both relative sound intensity and arrival time at the two ears determine the extent of localization performance. The present experiment investigated the role of binaural cues in a different context, the sound‐position discrimination task, where the subject is free to move and interact with the sound source. The role of binaural cues was investigated in rats by producing an interaural imbalance through unilateral removal of the middle auditory ossicle (incus) prior to discrimination training. Discrete trial go‐right/go‐left sound‐position discrimination of unilaterally incudectomised rats was then compared with that of normal rats and of rats with the incus of both sides removed. While bilateral incus removal affected binaural intensity and arrival times, the symmetry of sound input between the two ears was preserved. Percentage of correct responses and videotaped observations of sound approach and exploration showed that the unilateral rats failed to localize the sounding speaker. Rats with symmetrical binaural input (normal and bilaterally incudectomised rats) accurately discriminated sound position for the duration of the experiment. Previously reported monaural localization based upon following the intensity gradient to the sound source was not observed in the unilaterally incudectomised rats of the present experiment. It is concluded that sound‐position discrimination depends upon the use of bina

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1985.43-315

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Food was presented to pigeons, irrespective of their behavior. The fixed 60‐s interfood interval was segmented into ten 6‐s periods, each signaled by a distinctive stimulus color, ordered by wavelength. This “interfood clock” reliably generated and maintained successively higher rates of key pecking at stimuli successively closer to food. Under extinction, key pecking ceased. When the standard stimulus sequence was changed to a different sequence for each bird, accelerated responding again emerged and was sustained under each of the new color sequences. However, responding was neither maintained nor acquired when each successive interfood interval provided a different random sequence of the ten stimuli. Thus, the interfood clock generated and maintained sign‐tracking under stimulus control, and the resulting behavior was attributable neither to stimulus generalization nor to a simple temporal

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1985.43-321

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Interresponse‐time distributions were recorded in two components of multiple variable‐interval schedules that were varied over several conditions. Values of the exponent for power functions relating ratios of interresponse times emitted per opportunity to ratios of reinforcers obtained in the two components varied with interresponse‐time class interval. The exponent (sensitivity to reinforcement) afforded a measure of stimulus control exerted by the discriminative stimuli. Exponents were near zero for short interresponse times, consistent with previous conclusions that responses following short interresponse times are controlled by response‐produced or proprioceptive stimuli. Values of exponents increased with longer interresponse times, indicating strong control by exteroceptive stimuli over responses following interresponse times of approximately one second or

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1985.43-331

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Pigeons chose between two alternatives that differed in the probability of reinforcement and the delay to reinforcement. A peck on the red key always produced a delay of 5 s and then a possible reinforcer. The probability of reinforcement for responding on this key varied from .05 to 1.0 in different conditions. A response on the green key produced a delay of adjustable duration and then a possible reinforcer, with the probability of reinforcement ranging from .25 to 1.0 in different conditions. The green‐key delay was increased or decreased many times per session, depending on a subject's previous choices. The purpose of these adjustments was to estimate an indifference point, or a delay that resulted in a subject's choosing each alternative about equally often. In conditions where the probability of reinforcement was five times higher on the green key, the green‐key delay averaged about 12 s at the indifference point. In conditions where the probability of reinforcement was twice as high on the green key, the green‐key delay at the indifference point was about 8 s with high probabilities and about 6 s with low probabilities. An analysis based on these results and those from studies on delay of reinforcement suggests that pigeons' choices are relatively insensitive to variations in the probability of reinforcement between .2 and 1.0, but quite sensitive to variations in probability between .2

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1985.43-341

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Experiments examined the effects of acute doses of chlordiazepoxide upon ethanol self‐administration in the rat. A concurrent‐schedule procedure was used that employed choice between ethanol (5%) and a second fluid (either water or a 1% sucrose solution). When ethanol and water were the available fluids, chlordiazepoxide at doses of 15 and 20 mg/kg reduced ethanol‐reinforced responding and intake, with a greater reduction occurring at the 20 mg/kg dose. However, when ethanol and sucrose were concurrently available, in many rats only the 20 mg/kg dose of chlordiazepoxide reduced ethanol‐reinforced responding. The differences in dose response function occurred in most animals without large changes in the baseline ethanol‐reinforced responding across the two concurrent conditions. Thus the dose‐effect curve relating chlordiazepoxide and ethanol self‐administration can be altered, dependent upon the nature of the concurrently availabl

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1985.43-353

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Early theorists (Skinner, Spence) interpreted discrimination learning in terms of the strengthening of the response to one stimulus and its weakening to the other. But this analysis does not account for the increasing independence of the two performances as training continues or for increases in control by dimensions of a stimulus other than the one used in training. Correlation of stimuli with different densities of reinforcement produces an increase in the behavior necessary to observe them, and greater observing of and attending to the relevant stimuli may account for the increase in control by these stimuli. The observing analysis also encompasses errorless training, and the selective nature of observing explains the feature‐positive effect and the relatively shallow gradients of generalization generated by negative discriminative stimuli. The effectiveness of the observing analysis in handling these special cases adds to the converging lines of evidence supporting its integrative power and thus its validit

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1985.43-365

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Analyses of free‐operant choice usually employ one of two general procedures: the simple concurrent procedure (i.e., a concurrent variable‐interval variable‐interval schedule) or the concurrent‐chains procedure (i.e., concurrently available initial links, each leading to an exclusively available terminal link). Theories about choice usually focus on only one of the two procedures. For example, maximization theories, which assert that behavior is distributed between two alternatives in such a way that overall rate of reinforcement is maximized, have been applied only to the simple concurrent procedure. In the present paper, a form of the pairing hypothesis (according to which pairings between one stimulus and another affect the value of the first, and pairings between responses and reinforcers affect the value of the former) is developed in a way that allows it to make qualitative predictions with regard to choice in a variety of simple concurrent and concurrent‐chains procedures. The predictions include matching on concurrent variable‐interval variable‐interval schedules, preference reversal in the self‐control paradigm, and preference for tandem over chained

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1985.43-383

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Incentive theory is successfully applied to data from experiments in which the amount of food reward is varied. This is accomplished by assuming that incentive value is a negatively accelerated function of reward duration. The interaction of the magnitude of a reward with its delay is confirmed, and the causes and implications of this interaction are discussed.

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1985.43-407

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY