Search

This study advances the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to identify the mechanism that underlies the consumption of reusable containers. A questionnaire including context, motivation, subjective norms, attitudes, perceived behavioral control, intentions and behavior items was developed and pre-tested on 180 students in a Canadian and a Chinese university respectively. Subsequently, the questionnaire was implemented in the form of an online survey and 1221 effective responses were collected from Western ( n = 549) and Asian ( n = 672) consumers. The findings revealed that the context and motivation variables are important antecedents to several TPB constructs. Context strongly impacts perceived behavioral control and motivations as well as attitudes. Motivation is clearly distinct from intentions and has a significant influence on both attitudes and intentions. In addition to the standard variables of perceived behavioral control, subjective norms and attitudes, motivation does have a significant impact on intentions. Furthermore, there are cultural differences in the way context impacts intentions and behavior in that Asians (Westerners) are influenced by context to increase reusable containers consumption through motivation (attitudes). Attitude is a significantly stronger predictor of intentions for Westerners than Asians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inducing adequate therapeutic seizures during electroconvulsive therapy is sometimes difficult, even at the maximum stimulus charge, due to a high seizure threshold. Here, we describe two patients with very poor seizure responses at the maximum charge using conventional stimulus parameters in whom responses were successfully augmented by widening the pulse width at the same or even lower stimulus charge. This strategy could be an additional option for seizure augmentation in clinical practice. The potential clinical utility of stimulus parameter modifications should be further investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three 14-year-old boys with diagnoses of autism learned to mand for the delivery or removal of tokens by presenting nonsense syllables (A1-5, respectively). A match-to-sample procedure was used to establish conditional discriminations between the 5 A stimuli and 5 B stimuli and between the B stimuli and 5 C stimuli. Subsequently, each participant was able to use the C stimuli to mand, illustrating a transfer of function, although 1 participant first required multiple-exemplar training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Approach and avoidance behavior provide a means for assessing the rewarding or aversive value of stimuli, and can be quantified by a keypress procedure whereby subjects work to increase (approach), decrease (avoid), or do nothing about time of exposure to a rewarding/aversive stimulus. To investigate whether approach/avoidance behavior might be governed by quantitative principles that meet engineering criteria for lawfulness and that encode known features of reward/aversion function, we evaluated whether keypress responses toward pictures with potential motivational value produced any regular patterns, such as a trade-off between approach and avoidance, or recurrent lawful patterns as observed with prospect theory. Methodology/Principal Findings: Three sets of experiments employed this task with beautiful face images, a standardized set of affective photographs, and pictures of food during controlled states of hunger and satiety. An iterative modeling approach to data identified multiple law-like patterns, based on variables grounded in the individual. These patterns were consistent across stimulus types, robust to noise, describable by a simple power law, and scalable between individuals and groups. Patterns included: (i) a preference trade-off counterbalancing approach and avoidance, (ii) a value function linking preference intensity to uncertainty about preference, and (iii) a saturation function linking preference intensity to its standard deviation, thereby setting limits to both. Conclusions/Significance: These law-like patterns were compatible with critical features of prospect theory, the matching law, and alliesthesia. Furthermore, they appeared consistent with both mean-variance and expected utility approaches to the assessment of risk. Ordering of responses across categories of stimuli demonstrated three properties thought to be relevant for preference-based choice, suggesting these patterns might be grouped together as a relative preference theory. Since variables in these patterns have been associated with reward circuitry structure and function, they may provide a method for quantitative phenotyping of normative and pathological function (e.g., psychiatric illness). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many experiments have demonstrated recovery of extinguished responding following a context change and some experiments have shown that extinction in multiple contexts can reduce this response recovery. We report two additional experiments which both showed reduced response recovery following extinction in the presence of multiple partner cues. These experiments also showed reduced response recovery following acquisition in the presence of multiple partner cues. The effect of the multiple extinction treatment was present in tests carried out in presence of the original training cue (ABA design) as well as in the presence of a novel test cue (ABC design), suggesting the effect was mediated by the associative strength of the target cue, rather than by the strength of the partner cue. However, the effect of the multiple acquisition treatment was only present in the ABA design, suggesting this effect was mediated by the associative strength of the partner cues, not by the strength of the target cue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the composite-stimulus control model (Weiss, 1969, 1972b), an individual discriminative stimulus (SD) is composed of that SDs on-state plus the off-states of all other relevant SDs. The present experiment investigated the reversibility of composite-stimulus control. Separate groups of rats were trained to lever-press for food whenever a tone or alight SD was present. For one group, the non- reinforced SΔ condition was tone-and-light absence (T̄+L̄). Tone-plus-light (T+L) was SΔ in the other group. On a "stimulus compounding" test that recombined composite elements, maximum responding occurred to that composite consisting only of elements occasioning response increase. That was T+L for the group trained with T̄+L̄as SΔ and T̄+L̄ for the group trained with T+L as SΔ. The SΔ composite was next reversed over groups in Phase 2. In Phase 2 tests, maximum responding that was comparable in magnitude to that of Phase 1 was again controlled by the composite consisting only of elements most recently occasioning response increase-whether T+L or T̄+L̄. The inhibitory conditioning history of both composite-elements currently occasioning responding did not weaken the summative effect. These results confirm and extend Weiss's composite-stimulus control model, and demonstrate that such control is fully reversible. We discuss how translating conditions of the stimulus- compounding paradigm to a composite continuum creates a functional and logical connection to intradimensional control measured through stimulus generalization, reducing the number of different behavioral phenomena requiring unique explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to widely held views in cognitive science harking back to David Hume, causality cannot be perceived directly, but instead is inferred from patterns of sensory experience, and the quality of these inferences is determined by perceivable quantities such as contingency and contiguity. We report results that suggest a reversal of Hume's conjecture: People's sense of time is warped by the experience of causality. In a stimulus-anticipation task, participants' response behavior reflected a shortened experience of time in the case of target stimuli participants themselves had generated, relative to equidistant, equally predictable stimuli they had not caused. These findings suggest that causality in the mind leads to temporal binding of cause and effect, and extend and generalize beyond earlier claims of intentional binding between action and outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activity schedules are often used to facilitate task engagement and transition for children with autism. This study evaluated whether conditional discrimination training would serve to transfer the control from activity-schedule pictures to printed words (i.e., derived textual control). Two preschoolers with autism were taught to select pictures and printed words given their dictated names. Following training, participants could respond to printed words by completing the depicted task, match printed words to pictures, and read printed words without explicit training (i.e., emergent relations). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment was carried out with humans as subjects, aged between 7 and 53, in which a conditional discrimination procedure with compound samples made up by exteroceptive (colored geometric shapes) and proprioceptive stimuli (different ways of pointing at them) was used. Thus, subjects were trained to perform differently in the presence of each sample, and later to choose the correct comparison. They were then evaluated in a conditional discrimination with unitary samples for each one of the components of the previous compound stimulus (only behavior and only colored shapes). For this, a competition procedure was designed. Results showed that the exteroceptive stimuli exerted more influence over the chosen behavior than the proprioceptive stimuli. Results are discussed in relation to the importance that one's own behavior discrimination may have in the origins of bidirectional discriminative control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquisition and maintenance of touch-screen responding was examined in naïve cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) under automaintenance and classical conditioning arrangements. In the first condition of Experiment 1, we compared acquisition of screen touching to a randomly positioned stimulus (a gray square) that was either stationary or moving under automaintenance (i.e., banana pellet delivery followed an 8-s stimulus presentation or immediately upon a stimulus touch). For all subjects stimulus touching occurred within the first session and increased to at least 50% of trials by the end of four sessions (320 trials). In the subsequent condition, stimulus touching further increased under a similar procedure in which pellets were only delivered if a stimulus touch occurred (fixed ratio with 8-s limited hold). In Experiment 2, 6 naive subjects were initially exposed to a classical conditioning procedure (8-s stimulus preceded pellet delivery). Despite the absence of a programmed response contingency, all subjects touched the stimulus within the first session and responded on about 50% or more of trials by the second session. Responding was also sensitive to negative, neutral, and positive response contingencies introduced in subsequent conditions. Similar to other species, monkeys engaged in stimulus-directed behavior when stimulus presentations were paired with food delivery. However, stimulus-directed behavior quickly conformed to response contingencies upon subsequent introduction. Video recordings of sessions showed topographies of stimulus-directed behavior that resembled food acquisition and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable variability exists between people in their health- and performance-related adaptations to conventional endurance training. We hypothesized that some of this variability might be due to differences in the training stimulus received by the working muscles. In 71 young sedentary women we observed large variations in the ratio of one-leg cycling muscle aerobic capacity to two-leg cycling whole-body maximal oxygen uptake ( ; Ratio1:2; range 0.58–0.96). The variability in Ratio1:2 was primarily due to differences between people in one-leg ( r= 0.71, P < 0.0005) and was not related to two-leg ( r= 0.15, P= 0.209). Magnetic resonance imaging ( n= 30) and muscle biopsy sampling ( n= 20) revealed that one-leg was mainly determined by muscle volume ( r= 0.73, P < 0.0005) rather than muscle fibre type or oxidative capacity. A high one-leg was associated with favourable lipoprotein profiles ( P= 0.033, n= 24) but this was not the case for two-leg . Calculations based on these data suggest that conventional two-leg exercise at 70% requires subjects with the lowest Ratio1:2 to work their legs at 60% of single-leg , whilst those with the highest Ratio1:2 work their legs at only 36% of maximum. It was concluded that endurance training carried out according to current guidelines will result in highly variable training stimuli for the leg muscles and variable magnitudes of adaptation. These conclusions have implications for the prescription of exercise to improve health and for investigations into the genetic basis of muscle adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has suggested that the availability of high-preference stimuli may override the reinforcing efficacy of concurrently available low-preference stimuli under relatively low schedule requirements (e.g., fixed-ratio 1 schedule). It is unknown if similar effects would be obtained under higher schedule requirements. Thus, the current study compared high-preference and low-preference reinforcers under progressively increasing schedule requirements. Results for 3 of the 4 participants indicated that high-preference stimuli maintained responding under higher schedule requirements relative to low-preference stimuli. For 1 participant, high-preference and low-preference stimuli were demonstrated to be equally effective reinforcers under increasing schedule requirements. Implications with respect to rate of performance and response patterns are discussed. - [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consideration of reinforcer magnitude may be important for maximizing the efficacy of treatment for problem behavior. Nonetheless, relatively little is known about children's preferences for different magnitudes of social reinforcement or the extent to which preference is related to differences in reinforcer efficacy. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the relations among reinforcer magnitude, preference, and efficacy by drawing on the procedures and results of basic experimentation in this area. Three children who engaged in problem behavior that was maintained by social positive reinforcement (attention, access to tangible items) participated. Results indicated that preference for different magnitudes of social reinforcement may predict reinforcer efficacy and that magnitude effects may be mediated by the schedule requirement. - [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluated behavior exhibited by individuals with developmental disabilities using progressive-ratio (PR) schedules. High- and low-preference stimuli were determined based on the results of a paired-stimulus preference assessment and were evaluated in subsequent reinforcer and PR assessments using concurrent and single schedules of presentation. In Experiment 1, results showed that for 2 of 3 participants, stimuli determined to be low-preference functioned as reinforcers when evaluated independent of high-preference stimuli. Further, the results from Experiment 2 showed that low-preference stimuli also functioned as reinforcers under gradually increasing PR requirements. Results suggest that for cases in which a high-preference stimulus is unavailable or impractical, the contingent delivery of relatively less preferred stimuli may maintain appropriate behavior, even as schedule requirements increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conditioned stimuli are important guides for behavioral actions. This experiment determined the role of the dorsal striatum in conditioned-stimulus modulation of instrumental responding using the pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) paradigm. Rats received pavlovian training wherein two different auditory stimuli predicted the delivery of two food rewards. Next, rats were trained to perform two instrumental actions earning the same two rewards. Finally, the impact of pavlovian stimuli on instrumental performance was assessed in extinction: the stimuli were periodically presented while rats were free to perform the lever-press response. Before testing, medial or lateral dorsal striatum was infused with saline or bacolfen/muscimol, to temporarily inactivate the region. Under saline, outcome-selective PIT was observed: presentation of a stimulus paired with the same outcome as the instrumental action elevated responding, whereas presentation of a stimulus paired with a different outcome did not. Inactivation of the dorsolateral striatum dramatically reduced this effect. Inactivation of the dorsomedial striatum left intact the ability of reward-related stimuli to invigorate responding; however, the selectivity of the stimulus effect was lost (i.e., both stimuli excited responding). These results indicate that subregions of the dorsal striatum play distinct roles in stimulus modulation of instrumental performance with the lateral region being vital for reward-related stimuli to excite responding and the medial region being involved in the integration of stimulus-reward associations with specific response-outcome associations to produce selective responding. These findings identify new roles for the dorsal striatum in mediating the incentive effects of reward-predictive stimuli on behavioral actions made to obtain reward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite of the apparent simplicity of Pavlovian conditioning, research on its mechanisms has caused considerable debate, such as the dispute about whether the associated stimuli are coded in an «elementistic« (a compound stimuli is equivalent to the sum of its components) or a «configural « (a compound stimuli is a unique exemplar) fashion. This controversy is evident in the abundant research on the contrasting predictions of elementistic and the configural models. Recently, some mixed solutions have been proposed, which, although they have the advantages of both approaches, are difficult to evaluate due to their complexity. This paper presents a computer program to conduct simulations of a mixed model (replaced elements model or REM). Instructions and examples are provided to use the simulator for research and educational purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study describes the assessment and treatment of the problem behavior of 3 individuals with autism for whom initial functional analysis results were inconclusive. Subsequent analyses revealed that the interruption of free-operant behavior using ‘do’ requests (Study 1) as well as ‘do’ and ‘don't’ requests (Study 2) occasioned problem behavior. Initially, treatment involved differential and noncontingent reinforcement without interruption. To make the intervention more sustainable in the natural environment (where interruptions are unavoidable), a two-component multiple-schedule arrangement was used to progressively increase the period of time in which ongoing activities would be interrupted. During generalization sessions, the intervention was applied across a variety of contexts and therapists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of preferred stimulation on the vocal stereotypy of 2 individuals were evaluated in two experiments. The results of Experiment 1 showed that (a) the vocal stereotypy of both participants persisted in the absence of social consequences, (b) 1 participant manipulated toys that did and did not produce auditory stimulation, but only sound-producing toys decreased his vocal stereotypy, and (c) only noncontingent music decreased vocal stereotypy for the other participant, but sterotypy paradoxically increased when toys were presented with music. Using a three-component multiple schedule, the results of Experiment 2 showed that the vocal stereotypy of both participants remained below preintervention levels following the removal of auditory stimulation and that 1 participant's vocal stereotypy increased following the removal of contingent reprimands. These patterns suggest that auditory stimulation functioned as an abolishing operation for vocal stereotypy and reprimands functioned as an establishing operation for vocal stereotypy. Together, the two experiments provide a method for identifying alternative stimulation that may substitute for automatically reinforced behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested the notion that an equivalence relation may include a response when differential responses are paired with stimuli presented during training. Eight normal adults learned three kinds of computer mouse movements as differential response topographies (R1, R2, and R3). Next, in matching- to-sample training, one of the response topographies was used to select a comparison stimulus B (Bi, B2, or B3) conditionally upon presentation of sample stimulus A (Al, A2, or A3), and to select stimulus D (D1, D2, or D3) conditionally upon presentation of stimulus C (Cl, C2, or C3). After two sample- comparison-response relations (ABR and CDR) were established, 18 sample-comparison relations were tested (BA, DC, RA, RB, RC, RD, AC, CA, AD, DA, BC, CB, BD, DB, AA, BB, CC, and DD). In the RA, RB, RC, and RD tests, the differential responses (R1, P.2, and R3) were used as sample stimuli. All subjects made class-consistent comparison selections in the tests. This study provides evidence that responses may become members of an equivalence class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An observing procedure was used to investigate the effects of alterations in response-conditioned-reinforcer relations on observing. Pigeons responded to produce schedule-correlated stimuli paired with the availability of food or extinction. The contingency between observing responses and conditioned reinforcement was altered in three experiments. In Experiment 1, after a contingency was established in baseline between the observing response and conditioned reinforcement, it was removed and the schedule-correlated stimuli were presented independently of responding according to a variable-time schedule. The variable-time schedule was constructed such that the rate of stimulus presentations was yoked from baseline. The removal of the observing contingency reliably reduced rates of observing. In Experiment 2, resetting delays to conditioned reinforcement were imposed between observing responses and the schedule-correlated stimuli they produced. Delay values of 0, 0.5, 1,5, and 10 s were examined. Rates of observing varied inversely as a function of delay value. In Experiment 3, signaled and unsignaled resetting delays between observing responses and schedule-correlated stimuli were compared. Baseline rates of observing were decreased less by signaled delays than by unsignaled delays. Disruptions in response-conditioned-reinforcer relations produce similar behavioral effects to those found with primary reinforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We attempted to isolate the evocative effects of the establishing operation for positively reinforced problem behavior with 2 participants. The study consisted of three phases. First, a functional analysis identified tangible items (Participant 1) and attention (Participant 2) as maintaining problem behavior. Second, access to tangible items and attention was systematically controlled (continuous access vs. no access) immediately prior to functional analysis sessions in which these consequences were delivered contingent on problem behavior. Results of this phase indicated that problem behavior occurred at higher levels when access to tangible items and attention was restricted. In the third phase, prior access was again controlled, but problem behavior produced no consequences. Results of this final phase indicated that problem behavior occurred at higher levels during extinction sessions when participants did not have prior access to the reinforcers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whisker deflection conditioned stimuli (CS) were demonstrated to activate physiologically and anatomically defined barrels in the contralateral somatosensory cortex and to support trace-eyeblink conditioned responses when paired with corneal airpuff unconditioned stimuli in rabbits. Analysis of cytochrome-oxidase-stained somatosensory whisker-associated cortical barrels revealed a row-specific expansion of the conditioned compared with the nontrained hemisphere. This expansion was not evident in pseudo-conditioned rabbits, suggesting that this expansion of conditioned cortical barrels in response to a hippocampal- and forebrain-dependent learning task (trace conditioning) is associative rather than activity dependent. Using whisker stimulation as a CS in the well studied eyeblink conditioning paradigm will facilitate characterizing sensory cortical involvement in controlling and modulating an associatively learned response at the neural systems and cellular level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Associative conditioning involves changes in the processing pathways activated by sensory information to link the conditioned stimulus (CS) to the conditioned behavior. Thus, conditioning can recruit neuronal elements to form new pathways for the processing of the CS and/or can change the strength of existing pathways. Using a behavioral and systems level electrophysiological approach on a tractable invertebrate circuit generating feeding in the mollusk Lymnaea stagnalis, we identified three independent pathways for the processing of the CS amyl acetate used in appetitive conditioning. Two of these pathways, one suppressing and the other stimulating feeding, mediate responses to the CS in naive animals. The effects of these two pathways on feeding behavior are unaltered by conditioning. In contrast, the CS response of a third stimulatory pathway is significantly enhanced after conditioning, becoming an important contributor to the overall CS response. This is unusual because, in most of the previous examples in which naive animals already respond to the CS, memory formation results from changes in the strength of pathways that mediate the existing response. Here, we show that, in the molluscan feeding system, both modified and unmodified pathways are activated in parallel by the CS after conditioning, and it is their integration that results in the conditioned response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of noncontingent matched stimulation (NMS) and response blocking on a boy's stereotypic behavior were evaluated using a multiple schedule that contained three 15-min components (preintervention, intervention, and postintervention). Results showed that stereotypy was always higher after response blocking than before response blocking and was always lower after NMS than before NMS. These results suggest that response blocking may have produced deprivation for the product of stereotypy and that NMS may have provided stimulation that was similar to the product of stereotypy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the effects of differential negative reinforcement of other behavior (DNRO) on problem behavior evoked by music in a 7-year-old child with pervasive developmental disorder. Following an auditory stimulus assessment, DNRO was used to reduce problem behavior to near-zero levels. Results are discussed in terms of identifying establishing operations to govern treatment options and the use of negative reinforcement when arbitrarily imposed positive reinforcers do not compete with escape from auditory stimulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pictorial and tangible paired-stimulus preference assessments were compared with 4 adolescents with developmental disabilities. In the tangible assessment, two stimuli were placed in front of the participant on each trial; in the pictorial assessment, two line drawings were placed in front of the participant on each trial. Approach responses were recorded for each assessment. The assessments generated similar preference hierarchies for all participants. Reinforcer assessments confirmed that response rates were higher when access to high-preference items was available than when low-preference items were available. Implications for assessing preferences and selecting items to be used in training programs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A brief functional analysis was used to examine the influence of termination of prechange activities and initiation of postchange activities on tantrums exhibited by 2 preschool children. For 1 participant, tantrums were maintained by access to certain (pretransition) activities. For a 2nd participant, tantrums were maintained by avoidance of certain task initiations. Although advance notice of an upcoming transition was ineffective, differential reinforcement of other behavior plus extinction reduced tantrums for both participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generality and long-term maintenance of a pairing procedure designed to improve the efficacy of less intrusive procedures were evaluated for the treatment of problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement exhibited by 2 individuals with developmental disabilities. Results suggested that a less intrusive procedure could be established as a conditioned punisher by pairing it with an effective punisher contingent on problem behavior. Generalization across multiple therapists was demonstrated for both participants. However, generalization to another setting was not achieved for 1 participant until pairing was conducted in the second setting. Long-term maintenance was observed with 1 participant in the absence of further pairing trials. Maintenance via intermittent pairing trials was successful for the other participant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study describes preschool teacher-child interactions during several commonly scheduled classroom activities in which teachers deliver instructions. An observation system was developed that incorporated measurement of evidence-based compliance strategies and included the types of instructions delivered (e.g., integral or deficient directives, embedded directives, ‘do’ or ‘don't’ commands), the children's behavior with respect to the instructions (e.g., compliance, noncompliance, active avoidance, problem behavior), and the differential responses of the teacher to the child's behavior following an instruction (e.g., appropriate or inappropriate provision of attention and escape). After 4 classroom teachers were observed at least five times in each of five target activities, simple and conditional probabilities were calculated. Results indicated that (a) the frequency of instruction and probability of compliance varied as a function of activity type, (b) ‘do’ commands and directive prompts were delivered almost to the exclusion of ‘don't’ commands and nondirective prompts, (c) the likelihood of compliance was highest following an embedded or an integral directive prompt, and (d) although putative social reinforcers were more likely to follow noncompliance than compliance and were highly likely following problem behavior, compliance occurred over twice as much as noncompliance, and problem behavior during instructions was very low. Implications for using descriptive assessments for understanding and improving teacher-child interactions in the preschool classroom are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interteaching is a new method of classroom instruction that is based on behavioral principles but offers more flexibility than other behaviorally based methods. We examined the effectiveness of interteaching relative to a traditional form of classroom instruction—the lecture. In Study 1, participants in a graduate course in special education took short quizzes after alternating conditions of interteaching and lecture. Quiz scores following interteaching were higher than quiz scores following lecture, although both methods improved performance relative to pretest measures. In Study 2, we also alternated interteaching and lecture but counterbalanced the conditions across two sections of an undergraduate research methods class. After each unit of information, participants from both sections took the same test. Again, test scores following interteaching were higher than test scores following lecture. In addition, students correctly answered more interteaching-based questions than lecture-based questions on a cumulative final test. In both studies, the majority of students reported a preference for interteaching relative to traditional lecture. In sum, the results suggest that interteaching may be an effective alternative to traditional lecture-based methods of instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined the reinforcing effects of choosing among alternatives in a four-part evaluation. In the first study, initial-link responses in a concurrent-chains arrangement resulted in access to terminal links in which the completion of an academic task resulted in (a) the choice of a reinforcer (choice), (b) the delivery of an identical reinforcer (no choice), or (c) no material reinforcer (control). Three patterns of responding emerged: persistent preference for choice (3 participants); initial preference for choice, which did not persist (2 participants); and preference for no choice (1 participant). Additional evaluations determined if preference for choice could be enhanced (Study 2) or established (Study 3) by including more stimuli from which to choose. Choice-link selections systematically increased for all participants when more items were available from which to choose. Study 4 identified the precise value of the opportunity to choose by progressively increasing the response requirement during the choice terminal links for 3 children and determining the point at which these children stopped selecting the choice link. All children continued to select the choice link even when the work required in the choice link was much greater than that arranged in the no-choice link. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined some conditions under which a response acquired as a tact might facilitate the establishment of a mand. We taught 3 participants with developmental disabilities to tact the items ranked highest and lowest in a preference assessment and subsequently tested to see if the responses occurred as mands. All participants manded for the highly preferred item but rarely manded for the nonpreferred item. These results indicate that, although tact and mand functions are different, conditions can be created to facilitate transfer from the former to the latter. Implications for communication training are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our capacity to process and respond behaviourally to multiple incoming stimuli is very limited. To optimize the use of this limited capacity, attentional mechanisms give priority to behaviourally relevant stimuli at the expense of irrelevant distractors. In visual areas, attended stimuli induce enhanced responses and an improved synchronization of rhythmic neuronal activity in the gamma frequency band (40–70 Hz). Both effects probably improve the neuronal signalling of attended stimuli within and among brain areas. Attention also results in improved behavioural performance and shortened reaction times. However, it is not known how reaction times are related to either response strength or gamma-band synchronization in visual areas. Here we show that behavioural response times to a stimulus change can be predicted specifically by the degree of gamma-band synchronization among those neurons in monkey visual area V4 that are activated by the behaviourally relevant stimulus. When there are two visual stimuli and monkeys have to detect a change in one stimulus while ignoring the other, their reactions are fastest when the relevant stimulus induces strong gamma-band synchronization before and after the change in stimulus. This enhanced gamma-band synchronization is also followed by shorter neuronal response latencies on the fast trials. Conversely, the monkeys' reactions are slowest when gamma-band synchronization is high in response to the irrelevant distractor. Thus, enhanced neuronal gamma-band synchronization and shortened neuronal response latencies to an attended stimulus seem to have direct effects on visually triggered behaviour, reflecting an early neuronal correlate of efficient visuo-motor integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rabbits were trained on trace eyeblink (EB) conditioning until they reached a criterion of 10 consecutive EB conditioned responses (CRs). Electrolytic lesions were made in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) centered on the prelimbic area (Brodmann's area 32), at five different intervals after training. These included immediately, 24 h, 1 and 2 weeks, and 1 month after training. Separate groups of animals received sham lesions at these same intervals after training. After a 2 week postoperative recovery period, all animals were retested for 3 d on trace conditioning, using the same parameters used during preoperative training. Mean EB conditioning performance deficits occurred in the animals with mPFC lesions compared with sham-lesioned animals on the first day of retesting in all five groups. However, by the second or third day of retesting, the rabbits with lesions were performing at a level that was comparable with that of sham animals. Rabbits that received more posterolateral lesions of the neocortex did not, however, show postoperative conditioning deficits. A comparison of percentage EB CRs of animals with postoperative training with that of animals that received mPFC lesions before training suggests that the mPFC post-training lesions produce damage to a retrieval process and not to a storage site or an acquisition process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leisure items (e.g., games, toys) are commonly made available as controls during attention conditions of functional analyses (Ringdahl, Winborn, Andelman, & Kitsukawa, 2002). However, Ringdahl et al. raised questions about this practice. This paper reviews research that supports and conflicts with the inclusion of leisure items as controls, including a quantitative analysis of relevant articles published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis over a 10-year period. Data reviewed suggest that practitioners may consider omitting leisure items as controls or including such items strategically based on the accumulation of assessment information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of rate of conditioned reinforcement on the resistance to change of operant behavior have not been examined. In addition, the effects of rate of conditioned reinforcement on the rate of observing have not been adequately examined. In two experiments, a multiple schedule of observing response procedures was used to examine the effects of rate of conditioned reinforcement on observing rates and resistance to change. In a rich component, observing responses produced a higher frequency of stimuli correlated with alternating periods of random-interval schedule primary reinforcement or extinction. In a lean component, observing responses produced similar schedule-correlated stimuli but at a lower frequency. The rate of primary reinforcement in both components was the same. In Experiment 1, a 4:1 ratio of stimulus production was arranged by the rich and lean components. In Experiment 2, the ratio of stimulus production rates was increased to 6:1. In both experiments, observing rates were higher in the rich component than in the lean component. Disruptions in observing produced by presession feeding, extinction of observing responses, and response-independent food deliveries during intercomponent intervals usually were similar in the rich and lean components. When differences in resistance to change did occur, observing tended to be more resistant to change in the lean component. If resistance to change is accepted as a more appropriate measure of response strength than absolute response rates, then the present results provide no evidence that higher rates of stimuli generally considered to function as conditioned reinforcers engender greater response strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The architecture of the active site of members of the protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) superfamily renders these enzymes sensitive to reversible oxidation and inactivation. The importance of reversible oxidation of PTP superfamily members in controlling the signal output following an extracellular stimulus is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project examined whether a history of reinforced relational responding would result in derived requesting skills in 3 adults with disabilities. Participants were first taught to request preferred items using pictures; they were then taught conditional discriminations between pictures and their dictated names and between dictated names and their corresponding text. Finally, requests for preferred items using corresponding text were evaluated. All 3 participants demonstrated derived requesting skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study evaluated the effects of a lag differential reinforcement contingency on 2 students' activity selections using reversal designs. Results showed that the lag contingency was responsible for promoting increased novel selections, engagement in diverse activities, and greater progress with respect to programmed academic activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared fear learning acquired through direct experience (Pavlovian conditioning) and fear learning acquired without direct experience via either observation or verbal instruction. We examined whether these three types of learning yielded differential responses to conditioned stimuli (CS+) that were presented unmasked (available to explicit awareness) or masked (not available to explicit awareness). In the Pavlovian group, the CS+ was paired with a mild shock, whereas the observational-learning group learned through observing the emotional expression of a confederate receiving shocks paired with the CS+. The instructed-learning group was told that the CS+ predicted a shock. The three groups demonstrated similar levels of learning as measured by the skin conductance response to unmasked stimuli. As in previous studies, participants also displayed a significant learning response to masked stimuli following Pavlovian conditioning. However, whereas the observational-learning group also showed this effect, the instructed-learning group did not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the seminal studies of response differentiation by the method of successive approximation detailed in chapter 8 of The Behavior of Organisms (1938), B. F. Skinner never actually shaped an operant response by hand until a memorable incident of startling serendipity on the top floor of a flour mill in Minneapolis in 1943. That occasion appears to have been a genuine eureka experience for Skinner, causing him to appreciate as never before the significance of reinforcement mediated by biological connections with the animate social environment, as opposed to purely mechanical connections with the inanimate physical environment. This insight stimulated him to coin a new term (shaping), and also led directly to a shift in his perspective on verbal behavior from an emphasis on antecedents and molecular topographical details to an emphasis on consequences and more molar, functional properties in which the social dyad inherent to the shaping process became the definitive property of verbal behavior. Moreover, the insight seems to have emboldened Skinner to explore the greater implications of his behaviorism for human behavior writ large, an enterprise that characterized the bulk of his post World War II scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the response of author J. E. R. Staddon to the commentators of William Baum's review of his book "The New Behaviorism." Commendations to several journalists who commented on Baum's review of the book; Notification of journalists to the impact of molar behaviorism on students; Issues concerning molar and molecular behaviorism.

Staddon contends that behavior analysis may profit from theory, by which he means theory that includes assumed elemental processes allowing derivation of observed patterns of results. Behavior analysts who consider that our field has matured to the point where we are secure in our descriptive grasp of a range of phenomena will tend to agree. Unfortunately, the book's positive message is almost lost in a morass of distracting criticisms of Skinner and behavior analysis in general. Instead of recognizing the growth and maturation of the field, Staddon writes as if the field has stagnated and blames that stagnation on what he takes to be Skinner's antipathy toward theory. Neither has behavior analysis become stagnated, nor should Skinner be blamed for any shortcomings. Instead of acknowledging Skinner's foundational contributions to the field, however, Staddon devotes most of this book to bashing Skinner and fails to distinguish his own view of theory based on internal states from theory in cognitive psychology, treating theoretical models and unseen processes as the “true” subject of inquiry and behavior as only an indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Causal explanations of behavior must distinguish two kinds of cause. There are (what I call) triggering causes, the events or conditions that come before the effect and are followed regularly by the effect, and (what I call) structuring causes, events that cause a triggering cause to produce its effect. Moving the mouse is the triggering cause of cursor movement; hardware and programming conditions are the structuring causes of cursor movement. I use this distinction to show how representational facts (how an animal represents the world) can be structuring causes of behavior even though biological (i.e., electrical-chemical) events trigger the behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the application of the theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behavior to sport dietary supplement use to better understand the influences in young athletes. Review of related literature; Discussion on the theory of reasoned action; Application of the theory of planned behavior.

Presents a study which described an experimental model in which freezing or flight behaviors or both can be consistently evoked from inbred mice on first presentation by an innately aversive stimulus. Materials and methods; Results; Discussion and findings.

The traditional conception of response-dependence is inadequate because it cannot account for all intuitive cases of response-dependence. In particular, it is unable to account for the response-dependence of (aesthetic, moral, epistemic ...) values. I therefore propose to supplement the traditional conception with an alternative one. My claim is that only a combination of the two conceptions is able to account for all intuitive cases of response-dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses findings of a basic analogue experiment that addresses a socially relevant problem known as stimulus overselectivity or restricted stimulus control, atypically limited learning with respect to range, breadth or number of stimuli or stimulus features. Problem of overselectivity in delayed matching to sample (DMTS) with multiple sample stimuli.

A conditioned reinforcer is a stimulus that has acquired the ability to strengthen behavior because it has been associated with a primary reinforcer. Conditioned reinforcers have been studied using choice procedures in which subjects must choose between two or more alternatives. A well-known assumption of reinforcement theory is that the value or strength of a primary reinforcer decreases as delay between a response and the reinforcer increases. Research conducted by the author suggests that although the duration of a conditioned reinforcer is indeed important, its strength cannot be estimated simply by calculating the average delay to the primary reinforcer that it signals. If the conditioned reinforcer signals a variable delay to primary reinforcement, this variability must be taken into account in equation one, as described in the article. The same method applies to cases in which the conditioned reinforcer signals a probabilistic primary reinforcer. This method for calculating value may be more difficult to describe than taking a simple arithmatic average, but it appears to be necessary complexity.

The article reports on an educational model in behavioral training in social work. It is opined that by adopting the educational models for behavioral training, a more humanistic approach to behavior modification is achieved. The new behavior modification techniques that emphasize self-change procedures and attention to cognition obviate many of the ethical objections raised by social workers against more traditional behavior modification techniques. Moreover, use of these newer educational techniques could contribute to social work goals and values. Educational model avoids the pitfalls of a disease orientation and the resulting medical model of treatment. In the educational model, social workers might find a way of utilizing behavior modification techniques without abandoning traditional values concerning the self-determination of clients. The educational model can reach two kinds of persons: the troubled person who resists stigmatization and the one who does not think he or she needs help but has much to learn about growth and well-being.