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This study sought to replicate a model developed to explain the problem-solving process through insight with human participants. This process happens when an organism solves a problem by producing a behavior chain with at least two operant behaviors that share similar consequences during acquisition but in different contexts. We recruited six participants aged between 20 and 30 years old with a low level of previous experience in first-person video games. They also did not have significant experience with the Portal 2 game and had adequate structural conditions to participate in the experiment remotely. The procedure has five phases: familiarization, pretest, practicing of behaviors not necessary for problem solving, practicing of behaviors necessary for problem solving, and posttest. As a result, three participants solved the problem only in the posttest, one solved it in the pretest phase, and two did not solve it in any of their presentations. However, all participants issued the necessary behaviors to solve the problem. For future experiments, it is encouraged that changes in the problem-solving situation occur that seek to increase the probability of solving the problem once the participant emits the necessary behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A straightforward approach to establishing that a stimulus functions as a punisher is to superimpose a single-alternative punishment schedule on a concurrent schedule of reinforcement with equal scheduled reinforcement on the two alternatives. If the stimulus acts as a punisher, there should be a shift in preference away from the punished alternative and toward the unpunished alternative. We replicated this experiment with the Procedure for Rapidly Establishing Steady-State Behavior (PRESS-B) using point-loss as the punisher. Twenty-four participants worked on sets of three concurrent random-interval random-interval (conc RI RI) schedules of reinforcement: one with no punishment ("baseline" condition) and two with punishment where an RI schedule of punishment was superimposed on one of the alternatives. Compared to their respective baseline conditions, all punished conditions showed a decreased median proportion of time allocated to the punished alternative. This successful replication supports the use of point-loss punishment in PRESS-B, which means that researchers can use the procedure to further study the effects of punishment on human operant behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relational frame theory (RFT) sees temporal relational responding (e.g., A is after B; B is before A) as a key operant skill involved in the understanding of time. From this perspective relating events temporally is important for everyday life situations such as sequencing events, planning, and talking about the past or future. The aim of the present research was to assess performance on a test of temporal relational responding in young children at increasing levels of complexity. Twenty-five typically developing children between 3 and 8 years were assessed on tasks of nonarbitrary (i.e., based on physical events) and arbitrary (i.e., based on contextual cues only) temporal relations. Results showed a correlation between overall performance across temporal relational responding tasks and age. Performance on nonarbitrary "before" and "after" trials improved similarly with age whereas with arbitrary relations, participants performed much more poorly on "after" trials than on "before" trials and some interesting cohort specific patterns were also seen. Implications of the results and future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laboratory models of renewal are critical for understanding this form of behavioral relapse and informing clinical practice to reduce the occurrence of relapse and facilitate the maintenance of treatment gains. Nonsequential renewal is a modified procedure developed by (Sullivan et al. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 110(1), 74–86 2018) that provides an arrangement to study operant renewal in a manner more consistent with clients receiving clinical services, which involves exposing subjects to treatment and baseline conditions across two or more contexts. Experiment 1 replicated the procedure of (Craig et al. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 112(2), 210–223 2019) to compare ABA renewal of target responding in rats exposed to the nonsequential or sequential renewal procedure. Experiment 2 investigated the use of an olfactory extinction cue in mitigating renewal. In Experiment 1, the Nonsequential Group displayed a greater magnitude of renewal compared to the Sequential Group, consistent with the findings from (Craig et al. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 110(1), 74–86 2019) but inconsistent with those from (Sullivan et al. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 110(1), 74–86 2018) with human participants. The extinction cue did not mitigate renewal in Experiment 2. The use of a laboratory model of renewal that is more analogous to clinical settings may be valuable in a translational approach to investigating relapse-prevention techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of metacontingency describes a contingent relation between the coordination of two or more individual's behavior and a selecting consequence. The concept provides several insightful avenues for experimental investigation of social behavior and behavior of people in groups. The present study explores the question of whether operant behavior of individuals and coordinated behavior of multiple individuals can be distinguished as two different conditionable units of analysis. We used rates of individual responding maintained by ratio or interval schedules of reinforcement as a baseline to evaluate the effect of consequences contingent on coordinated behavior of 27 participants in groups of three. Coordination demanded temporal spacing between responses of three participants superimposed on the variable interval or variable ratio individual reinforcement schedules. The results showed that contingency on coordinated behaviors resulted in an increased rate of coordination along with a decreased rate of responding to individual schedules. Interresponse times (IRTs) from all participants were sensitive to the coordination contingency. We discuss the need to distinguish units of analysis that describe individual behavior and units describing coordinated behavior, although these units may occur simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present free operant conditioning experiments with rats examined the impact of manipulating different traits of an extinction-cue on ABA renewal. All rats were trained to perform an operant response (R1) for food in context A, and a different operant response (R2) in context B. Responses were then extinguished, R1 in context B and R2 in context A. In Experiment 1, for half of the rats, both responses were extinguished in the presence of an intermittent light. For the other half, a continuous light was utilized during extinction of R1 and R2. Finally, all rats were tested in both contexts (R1 was tested in the presence of the cue in both contexts, whereas R2 was tested in the presence of the cue only in the extinction context). Returning the rats to the original conditioning context renewed the initial operant behavior. However, we found that both types of extinction-cues (intermittent and continuous) attenuated ABA renewal equally. In addition, both responses underwent extinction in Experiment 2. For half of the subjects, R1 and R2 were extinguished in the presence of a dim light, whereas the other half received a bright light as an extinction-cue for both responses. Once again, we found during testing (R1 was tested in the presence of the cue in both contexts whereas R2 was tested in the presence of the cue only in the extinction context), that both types of extinction-cues reduced ABA renewal in a similar manner. The present results suggest that in some conditions, the features of the extinction cues may not affect their renewal-attenuating properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behaviors are considered instrumental when they produce opportunities to engage in other activities (i.e., contingent actions). By manipulating opportunities to engage in instrumental/contingent activities, practitioners can alter the direction and magnitude of instrumental behavior using principles of disequilibrium theory. Though previously unexplored, these models may have utility in clinical contexts involving automatically maintained behavior. In the current study, we sought to provide a brief demonstration of the potential generality and applicability of this model to clinical contexts involving automatic behavior, schedule thinning, and novel response dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resurgence is the reemergence of a previously reinforced behavior following the extinction of an alternative behavior. Although several variables are known to impact resurgence, few studies have examined resurgence when the target response was previously punished. Results of two studies examining resurgence after punishment have been mixed. In the current study, we employed a human-operant procedure to compare resurgence following differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) with extinction and DRA with extinction and response cost. For the three participants, target responding was eliminated more rapidly and fully following DRA with response cost. Similar levels of resurgence, however, occurred following both procedures. These data provide evidence that arranging response cost during DRA facilitates suppression of target responding without affecting subsequent resurgence. The results further our understanding of the role of negative punishment in resurgence as a process and have implications for the development of clinical intervention packages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operant behavior involves many physical dimensions, including time, force, location, and distance. Energy is an important dimension in foraging behavior or motor response. Kono ( Learning & Behavior, 41, 425-432, 2013) developed a schedule in which the controlling variable was the energy of responses, calculated by dividing the squared value of the distance between two consecutive responses by the squared value of the interresponse time, or the elapsed time between the two responses. This energy schedule demonstrated the possibility of differential reinforcement of the energy of responses, but the effect was relatively weak. Kono ( Learning & Behavior, 41, 425-432, 2013) proposed that this weak effect could have been caused by two features of the adjusting procedure: the use of two or more schedules and variation in the reinforced energy of responses across trials depending on the subjects' previous choice. The present study employed a single energy schedule whose requirement was fixed throughout the session. The results showed that the energy of responses increased as the requirement of the energy schedule increased. In addition, the degree of increase was greater for distance of responses than for time of responses. These results suggest that the energy schedule is a suitable method for controlling the energy of behavior, and the distance of responses has a greater effect than time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral contrast occurs when a change in the rate of reinforcement in one context results in a change in behavior in the opposite direction in another context. Research findings with nonhumans regarding the symmetry of positive and negative contrast have been mixed, especially regarding the relative influence of preceding and following schedules of reinforcement. Research has also been mixed regarding the extent to which systematic within-session contrast is demonstrated. Despite applied implications of contrast, the vast majority of research has been conducted with nonhumans. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the differential influence of preceding- and following-schedules of reinforcement on positive and negative behavioral contrast, as well as within-session contrast, with adult humans with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities in a 3-component human-operant arrangement. Positive contrast was found in 5 of 6 cases, whereas negative contrast was found in only 2 of 6. The effect of the following schedule was larger with positive contrast, but the effect of the preceding schedule was larger with negative contrast. There were no systematic within-session effects characteristic of behavioral contrast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University students partitioned in four groups were treated to a four-phase resurgence preparation in which three response sequences were sequentially acquired in the first three phases and tested for serial positioning effects and response variability in terminal resurgence phase. For the three test groups, three colored backgrounds served as the contextual stimuli that corresponded to the acquisition of the response sequences in the initial three phases. In the final resurgence phase, all response sequences were placed on extinction. The three test groups were re-presented a respective colored background found in one of the earlier acquisition phases. The fourth group did not involve any colored background throughout the entire experiment. Across all three test groups, the highest acquired response sequence proportion was correlated with the discriminative stimulus present in the resurgence phase. The no-color group without contextual change across phases showed recency and primacy effects consistent with those found in serial position studies. Moreover, the presence of the discriminative stimulus in the resurgence phase resulted in less variable response sequences relative to the no-color group. These findings support the role of discriminative stimuli in the manner with which response patterns are organized in resurgence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resurgence of a previously extinguished response can be an undesired result when implementing behavioral interventions in applied settings. The present study evaluated in rats a potential strategy for reducing resurgence, arranging punishment as well as extinction for the initially reinforced response. Ten rats pressed a lever (the B response) that was initially established with food reinforcement, then extinguished. For half of the rats, electric shock punishment was also arranged for the B response. Subsequently, nose poking (B) was established with food reinforcement, then extinguished. During extinction of B, substantial levels of B responses, that is, of resurgence, were evident in four of five rats not exposed to punishment of the B response. Resurgence was evident in only one of five rats exposed to punishment. These results suggest that arranging concurrent punishment and extinction of inappropriate responding merits attention as a technique for reducing resurgence of that response in applied settings, although this strategy would be viable only if an innocuous and socially acceptable form of punishment proved effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the several processes that purportedly contribute to psychological flexibility, that of enhancing self-as-context, or transcendent perspective taking, has been the least investigated. To address this omission, we conducted two analogue studies with college student participants examining the relative impact of a brief exercise for enhancing the contextual self on pain tolerance ( n = 22) by comparing it to control-based ( n = 22) and attention-placebo ( n = 22) protocols. In Study 1, the self-as-context intervention was a generic one that we modified only slightly from the 'observer exercise' presented in Hayes, Strosahl, and Wilson (, pp. 193-195). Significant, but equivalent, increases in pain tolerance as assessed by the cold pressor were obtained for the three protocols, with the largest effect size noted for the control-based condition. In Study 2, we compared a self-as-context protocol ( N = 22) that was contextualized to the experience of pain to data from Study 1. The contextualized intervention significantly increased pain tolerance compared to the generic self-as-context and attention-placebo conditions of Study 1. The increase was statistically equivalent to that obtained for the control-based condition of Study 1, but represented a greater effect size, suggesting that the relative impact of a generic self-as-context exercise is increased when contextualized to a specific psychological challenge. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research investigating the impact of interventions targeting self-as-context within both analogue and clinical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated children's self-report accuracy as a function of task type and also verified generalization of do-say correspondence across tasks. Six children between 6 and 11 years of age participated in the study. 'Doing' consisted of reading words, playing a computer game, solving a math problem, and labeling music-related stimuli. 'Saying' consisted of reporting on the accuracy of performance following the automated computer feedback. Baseline assessed correspondence for the different tasks. Correspondence training was conducted for the task in which levels of accuracy were the lowest. Generalized do-say correspondence was then assessed in untrained tasks. For four children, correspondence was lowest for the academic tasks. Four of six children exhibited generalized correspondence after the first training, and the remaining two children did so following a second training with a different task. Distinct tasks seemed to control different patterns of self-report accuracy. Results on generalization indicated do-say correspondence as a generalized operant behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to discuss the following questions: Can neurophysiology reveal something new about behavior--something that we could not know only by means of behavior analysis? Can neurophysiology influence the way we think about behavioral relations? To investigate these questions, I present an example in which neurophysiological events controlled, in addition to behavioral events, the verbal behavior of theorizing about behavior. The example under analysis concerns the biobehavioral approach hypotheses about the operant-respondent distinction and the unit of selection. I will discuss how information about the neurophysiology of retention contributed to this debate by sometimes favoring the ideas proposed by the biobehavioral approach, but, in some cases, by also providing evidence that challenge these very same ideas. I will argue that this example provides a positive answer to both of the aforementioned questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug abuse remains costly. Drug- related cues can evoke cue-reactivity and craving, contributing to relapse. The Pavlovian extinction-based cue-exposure therapy (CET) has not been very successful in treating drug abuse. A functional operant analysis of complex rituals involved in CET is outlined and reinterpreted as an operant heterogeneous chain maintained by observing responses, conditioned reinforcers, and discriminative stimuli. It is further noted that operant functions are not predicated on Pavlovian processes but can be influenced by them in contributing to relapse; several empirical studies from the animal and human literature highlight this view. Cue-reactivity evoked by Pavlovian processes is conceptualized as an operant establishing/ motivating operation. CET may be more effective in incorporating an operant-based approach that takes into account the complexity of Pavlovian-operant interaction. Extinction of the operant chain coupled with the shaping of alternative behaviors is proposed as an integrated therapy. It is proposed that operant- based drug abuse treatments (contingency management, voucher programs, and the therapeutic work environment) might consider incorporating cue-reactivity, as establishing/motivating operations, to increase long-term success--a hybrid approach based on Pavlovian--operant interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whelan and Barnes-Holmes (this issue) emphasized points with which they disagree with our analyses, especially regarding what they define as the correct usage of technical terms, what should be considered motivational, and the use of intervening variables in behavior analysis. Except for the definition of motivational phenomena, however, we believe that there are similarities between our proposal and the analyses presented in their commentary. We agree that terms should be used correctly and that behavior analysts should avoid dualistic explanations of behavior, but we propose that the intervening variable consequence value, defined as the relation between dependent variables and the independent variables that influence the effectiveness of consequences, is a more precise account of motivational phenomena than is a definition by exclusion, which has a higher likelihood of misuse. The present notion of value is consistent with the philosophical and scientific principles of behavior analysis and, most important, it can further experimental analyses and theoretical systematizations of findings about behavior because its limits are empirically established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aló and Cançado's (this issue) primary argument is that motivation should be described in terms of an intervening variable. Furthermore, they raise secondary points concerning the status and usage of technical terms and the scope of the motivational concept in behavior analysis. We agree with Aló and Cançado that a clear definition of motivation is essential. However, we disagree with their analysis on a number of fundamental points, such as the correct use of technical terms, the range of phenomena that should be considered as motivational, and we argue that the concept of the intervening variable is incompatible with radical behaviorism. We contend that motivation is best conceptualized as factors that influence the rate of operant responding but that are not part of the operant contingency and that, as with the term reinforcement, the terms operation and process are useful distinctions that should be employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can rats discriminate between short (i.e., 10 s) and long (i.e., 50 s) intervals of opportunity to run in running wheels? Eight female Long- Evans rats were exposed to 50 opportunities to run in a wheel. Following each interval, rats made a response to identify the interval. A correct response produced 0.1 ml of 15% sucrose solution, while an incorrect response caused the chamber lights to flash on and off for 5 s. Five of 8 rats met the criterion of 5 successive sessions with 80% correct responses for both durations. Furthermore, the criterion of 80% correct responses in a session was met more often with the 10-s than with the 50-s duration. Rats can discriminate between opportunities to run for different durations, but the results cast doubt on the assumption that rats are timing the intervals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis and a systematization of the behavioral phenomena and terms used to describe motivation in behavior analysis are proposed. Michael's (1982, 1993) initial definition of the concept of establishing operations is discussed. Subsequent revisions of the concept are then analyzed, especially in regard to the notion of reinforcer effectiveness, or value. Based on these analyses and on research on operant behavior more broadly, it is suggested that the label or intervening variable consequence value, defined as motivational variables that demonstrably influence the effectiveness of the consequences of behavior, allows for an elegant and parsimonious account of motivational phenomena. This account suggests directions for the analysis of phenomena defined as motivational and facilitates the systematization of studies on this topic in behavior analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we address the issue of applying operant psychology to derive plausible and useful interpretations of complex firm behavior in natural settings. The objective is to discuss an appropriate methodology based on case study design, developed specifically in Vella and Foxall (2011), to produce an operant interpretation of secondary documentary evidence. We present a summary of the more salient aspects of the discussion and analysis of the research to demonstrate the robustness of the methodology and to highlight strengths and limitations of the approach. Improvements are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perspective-taking skills have been shown to be pivotal in a variety of social and interpersonal interactions. A better understanding of the process involved in building such a repertoire could be beneficial in a wide variety of language and social skills training programs. A relational frame theory approach to perspective taking involves a focus on deictic relations, such as I-You, Here-There, and Now-Then. The present study examined the effect of operant contingencies on deictic relational responding in 3 normally developing young (57 to 68 months old) children. In a multiple baseline across persons and tasks format, I-You, Here-There, and Now-Then deictic relational frames were successfully shaped as operant behavior. As the children acquired deictic relational frames at the Reversed and Double-Reversed levels, the children's performance on traditional perspective-taking measures generally increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments 1, 2, and 3 investigated generalized contextually controlled symmetry and asymmetry in typically developing children and children with autism. In Experiment 1, eight typically developing children demonstrated the target performances without intervention. In Experiment 2, multiple-exemplar training and the use of familiar stimuli appeared to be effective in establishing the target performances for some of the children with autism. Experiment 3 examined an alternative intervention, based on alternating between correct and incorrect responding, for children with autism who appeared to have even greater difficulties in establishing contextually controlled symmetry and asymmetry. The findings are discussed in the context of the existing literature and interventions for establishing new repertoires in children with developmental disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the functional independence of mand and tact operants in normally developing children and evaluated the role of SDs in demonstrating emergent responding. In Experiment 1, 4 children aged 4 to 5 years, were trained to mand or tact using left/right relations, then were tested for the emergence of the untaught tact/ mand operant. None of the participants demonstrated an emergence of the untaught operant under standard antecedent conditions. However, all of the participants demonstrated an emergence of the untaught operant when the SDs were modified. Experiment 2 replicated the work in Experiment 1, using 8 participants. The conditions were reversed according to ABAB reversal design methodology and counterbalanced across participants. The findings demonstrated the important role of antecedent variables in emergent responding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published just over a half century ago, Schedules of Reinforcement (SOR) (Ferster & Skinner, 1957) marked the seminal empirical contribution of the book's second author and ushered in an era of research on behavior--environment relationships. This article traces the origins of both the methods and the data presented in SOR, and its legacy within experimental psychology. The operant methodology outlined in SOR revolutionized the study of behavior pharmacology and early investigations of choice behavior. More recently, schedules have been used to examine microeconomic behavior, gambling, memory, and contingency detection and causal reasoning in infants, children, and adults. Implications of schedules research for the psychology curriculum are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subjects were exposed to a word-picture association training phase in which each of 2 arbitrary nonsense syllables printed in blue and red font, respectively, were paired with either sexual or aversive photographic images. Subjects were then exposed to an equivalence training procedure that led to the formation of 2 3-member equivalence relations, each containing 1 of the 2 nonsense syllables in their respective color fonts, and 2 novel nonsense syllables in black font. in effect, equivalence class 1 (blue) was associated with sexual images, while equivalence class 2 (red) was associated with aversive images. Subjects were then exposed to a 2-block test in which sexual and aversive images and all members of the trained equivalence relations, presented in black font, were employed. in 1 block, subjects were instructed to produce responses that were compatible with their laboratory history. Specifically, subjects were instructed to produce the same operant response on a computer keyboard upon the presentation of both sexual images and members of equivalence class 1 (blue), and to produce another common response upon the presentation of aversive images and members of equivalence class 2 (red). in the second block of the test the instructions were juxtaposed such that subjects were required to produce common responses to members of classes that were not previously associated with one another (e.g., sexual images and members of equivalence class 2, red). Differences in the fluency of performances across both blocks of the final test were sensitive to subjects' relational and conditioning histories. That is, subjects produced significantly more correct responses during block 1 of the test compared to block 2. Such findings lay the foundation for the development of functionally understood behavioral tests and provide a functional-analytic model of the widely used implicit Association Test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined whether the presentation of stimuli in equivalence relations with consequences increases the operant behavior that produces these consequences. in Experiment 1, both normal words and experimentally trained equivalence stimuli did so with young children. in Experiment 2, results were similar with college students. here, a computer-based task was used, pitting discriminative control established within the experiment against the possible motivative effect of stimuli in equivalence relations with consequences of known impact. Results suggest that such stimuli function as verbal establishing stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perspective-taking, or the ability to demonstrate awareness of informational states in oneself and in others, has been of recent interest in behavioral psychology. This is, in part, a result of a modern behavioral approach to human language and cognition known as Relational Frame Theory, which views perspective-taking as generalized operant behavior based upon a history of reinforcement for relational responding. Previous lines of research have developed a behavioral protocol for assessing relational learning deficits in perspective-taking and have implicated the lack of perspective-taking as a basis for the social deficits observed in children with autism. However, no empirical investigations have been conducted on relational learning deficits in perspective-taking with autistic populations. The present paper reports 2 experiments that investigated whether children with autism spectrum disorder demonstrated relational learning deficits in a perspective-taking task as compared to their age-matched typically developing peers. We also investigated whether accuracy in perspective-taking correlated with scores on standardized instruments commonly used in the assessment of autism spectrum disorder, and whether relational responding in perspective-taking improves following a history of reinforcement for such responding. Results of Experiment 1 demonstrated statistically significant differences in errors as a function of type of relation, while visual inspection revealed that participants with autism spectrum disorder made more errors than typically developing children on 2 of the 3 types of relations examined. Results of Experiment 2 illustrated that a history of reinforced relational responding improved performance on the perspective-taking task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current work reports 2 experiments that investigate the development of false belief from the perspective of Relational Frame Theory. The true and false belief test protocol used across both experiments contained a range of tasks that involved responding in accordance with the 3 perspective-taking frames of I-YOU, HERE-THERE, NOW-THEN, and in accordance with logical NOT. Experiment 1 involved the presentation of a protocol containing 10 true/false tasks to participants of 5 age groups ranging from 3 to 30 years old. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, except that the number of tasks presented in the protocol was increased to 60 and novel participants were employed. The results of both experiments indicated a developmental trend in which accuracy on the protocol appeared to increase as a function of age. Furthermore, the fact that neither study indicated a statistically significant effect for trial type suggested that responding to both true and false belief may involve overlapping behavioral processes. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for Relational Frame Theory, behavior analysis, and the mainstream developmental literature on understanding true and false belief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developmental psychologists have been interested in the cognitive ability of perspective-taking for a number of years due to the apparent link between perspective-taking deficits and Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Most of the research in this area has employed the concepts and techniques of the approach commonly referred to as "Theory of Mind." The current paper is concerned with an alternative operant account of perspective-taking based on a modern behavioral approach to human language and cognition called Relational Frame Theory. According to this approach, the relational frames of I-YOU, HERE-THERE, and NOW-THEN are central to the development of complex perspective-taking. The present paper reports 3 studies that investigate the development of perspective-taking in terms of these 3 relational frames. In Study 1, 5 age groups of participants ranging from early childhood to adulthood were exposed to a protocol assessing their abilities to respond to relational perspective-taking tasks. A developmental profile was then constructed from the relative performances of the different age groups on this protocol. The findings from Study 1 overall indicated that accuracy increased as a function of age. Studies 2 and 3 were subsequently conducted as controls. Specifically, Study 2 was employed to determine whether the low rates of accuracy recorded with the youngest group of participants in Study 1 was simply a function of the length of the statements contained within some of the tasks. The results from Study 2 suggested that this was not the case. In Study 3 an automated version of the protocol was employed to determine whether the high rates of accuracy recorded with the adult participants in Study 1 was a function of cueing. The results from this study similarly indicated that this was not the case. Overall, the findings from the 3 studies lend support to the Relational Frame approach to the development of perspective-taking as generalized operant behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study that investigated the effect of supplemental feedings on pigeons' within-session changes in operant key-pecking. Methodology of the study; Results and discussion on the study.

The present study was undertaken to determine whether rats' rates of lever pressing for 1 % liquid-sucrose reinforcement in the first component of a multiple schedule would display negative behavioral contrast (i.e., decreased responding) if food-pellet reinforcement replaced 1 % sucrose reinforcement in the second component. Previous research had demonstrated that instead of contrast, upcoming food-pellet reinforcement has produced positive induction (i.e., increased responding) in responding for 1% sucrose. However, the procedures which demonstrated induction deviated substantially from those known to favor the appearance of behavioral contrast. The present study manipulated procedural details toward those that favor contrast. Eight experiments were conducted, across which factors such as component discrimination, component duration, component alternation, baseline rate of reinforcement, and baseline rate of responding were altered. These alterations did not lead to the observance of negative contrast. In fact, they did litlle to alter the observance of positive induction. Across all experiments, positive induction was observed in 38 of 47 possible instances. The present results pose difficulties for many, if not all, of the existing theories of behavioral contrast. They also indicate that, under certain conditions, induction and not contrast is the reliable outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses the status of 'The Psychological Record' on the area of human operant research. Prevalence of human operant studies from 1980 to 1999; Comparison with 'Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior'; Publications during the 1990s; Role in developing human laboratory tradition in operant psychology.

Provides further testing and demonstration of the informative value of contingent reward magnitude for human operant research. Imposition of a limited hold to interresponse time contingency; Examples of human contingencies; Effectiveness of contingent incentive value for influencing performance.

The present study attempted to produce generalized break equivalence responding with 5 adult subjects. A Generalized Break Equivalence Pattern (GBEP) involved responding in accordance with symmetry and transitivity but not with equivalence in new situations. That is, having been trained in two conditional discriminations, A1-B1/A2-B2 and B1-C1/B2-C2, subjects should produce the following derived relations; B1-A1, B2-A2, C1-B1, C2-B2, A1-C1, A2-C2, C1-A2, C2-A1. To achieve this goal, in Phase 1 subjects were exposed to explicit training in broken symmetry (A1-B1, A2-B2, B1-A2, B2-A1) with 3 different stimulus sets (4 stimuli per set). They were then trained in symmetry (A1-B1, A2-B2, B1-A1, B2-A2) with 3 new sets (4 stimuli per set). In Phase 2, subjects were exposed to Train Standard Equivalence (i.e., training in the conditional discriminations A1-B1, A2-B2, B1-C1, B2-C2). Then they received Train Break Equivalence (i.e., training in the conditional discriminations B1-A1, B2-A2, C1-B1, C2-B2 [symmetry]; A1-C1, A2-C2 [transitivity], C1-A2, C2-A1 [break equivalence]) and were finally exposed to a no-feedback condition with the relations trained during the Train Break Equivalence. This sequence was repeated with three different stimulus sets (6 stimuli per set). Finally, in Phase 3 subjects were tested for the generalization of the BEP with a new stimulus set (6 stimuli per set). In this phase subjects were exposed to Train Standard Equivalence and immediately after to a Generalization Test (GT). Three subjects showed a clear GBEP, 1 subject produced a very close result to the GBEP with errors on the transitive relation, and 1 subject failed to show the predicted pattern. These data provide some support for the suggestion that derived relational responding is an overarching or generalized operant class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was suggested that "real world" contingencies for humans make both incentive value and delivery of reinforcers response contingent in order to induce behavior change. It was proposed that a number of specialized contingencies fall under the general rubric of contingent incentive value. The main purpose of the present studies was to demonstrate the efficacy of such contingencies within the human operant laboratory context, in some cases with expanded versions of correlated reward where there was not a simple monotonic correspondence between responding and reward magnitude and in others where novel contingencies were tested. Generally, the results showed that contingent incentive value was effective in producing rapid and appropriate changes in performance. It was suggested that these special schedules may allow the laboratory to provide a more valid or faithful representation of contingencies in the "real world." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of generalized, higher-order, or overarching operant classes has been invoked by a number of researchers when dealing with complex behavior. For example, identity matching, generalized imitation, and relational framing all rest firmly on this concept. However, if the use of the term generalized (or higher-order/overarching) is to carry any explanatory value it needs to be clearly defined. The current article examines two approaches to clarifying this definition. The first approach suggests that generalized operants may be defined in terms of the different orders of contingencies involved, relative to nongeneralized operants, but fails to specify the exact nature of these different orders of contingencies. The second approach suggests that the term generalized should be used in a nontechnical way to emphasize that certain operant classes can only be specified in purely functional terms. This nontechnical definition appears to circumvent some of the thorny problems that arise in attempting to define generalized operants in terms of different orders of contingencies. However, other issues are raised by the latter, nontechnical definition of the generalized operant when it is applied to complex human behavior. These issues are examined and are found to be largely unproblematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distinction between operant and respondent behavior classes has received considerable attention throughout the history of behavior analysis. Some have contended that because operant and respondent processes share a number of similarities, the distinction should be dropped. Others, for lack of a better theoretical alternative, have supported the continued distinction. It is suggested that the failure of behavior analysts to recognize the ever-present role of respondent relations in operant conditioning experiments may be impeding the formulation of an effective explanation for stimulus equivalence, which has been investigated primarily as an operant phenomenon. Conceptual issues historically relevant to the operant-respondent distinction are discussed, and equivalence researchers are urged to consider the involvement of both classes of behavior in their analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The logical features of causality (necessary connection, succession, and contiguity) are examined in regard to respondent and operant behaviors. It is emphasized that operant behavior as emitted behavior breaks with any criterion of precedent causality. It is examined how Skinner tried to approach causality as functional relation, without overcoming a pure phenomenological analysis. The category of contingency is submitted to a conceptual analysis, and its application to superstition, respondent and operant conditioning is critically reviewed. A reinterpretation of contingency as conditionality is proposed, and the analysis of the organization of behavior is advocated in terms of interdependent functional and occurrence contingencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the application of a model of an operant response, termed the revealed operant, to study operant behavior in humans. Structure of a revealed operant occurrence; Long-term changes with number of repetitions; Changes in variability; Increased stereotypy following extinction; Effects of fixed-ratio schedules.

Examines interactions of instructional history and consequences on conditional discrimination performance interacting with different densities of consequences. Effects of instructions on operant behavior; Analysis of instructions presented regarding performance in a conditional discrimination situation.

Two experiments evaluated the effectiveness of instructional practices regarding subjects' disclosure of information about an operant task. In Experiment 1, 30 female subjects received detailed, general, or no instructions about disclosure. When placed with a confederate, those receiving detailed instructions revealed the least information. Subjects receiving general instructions and subjects receiving no instructions tended to disclose. Subjects who witnessed a confederate disclose were likely to disclose, despite receiving detailed instructions to the contrary. Subjects who witnessed a confederate refuse to disclose were less likely to disclose information even when they received no instructions regarding disclosure. In Experiment 2, a confederate disclosed a pattern of responding to a subject before the subject entered the operant situation. The subject responded similar to the confederate's description. Because the disclosure of information affects subjects' behavior, it is important that the effectiveness of instructional practices regarding disclosure be empirically tested rather than assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present experiment examined the effects of different delays of food delivery with and without a response-produced auditory stimulus on the acquisition of a spatially defined operant in rats. The operant was breaking a photoelectric beam located near the ceiling at the rear of the experimental chamber. In five groups of experimentally naive rats, the effects on photobeam-break responses of two different reinforcement delays (4 s and 10 s) with and without a response-produced auditory stimulus were compared during eight 1-hr sessions. In one control group (0-s delay), an immediate (i.e., 0.25-s) reinforcement contingency was in effect and in another control group (no food), responses were measured in the absence of any reinforcement contingencies. Results showed that rates of acquisition and responding were higher with shorter reinforcement delays and when there was a response-produced auditory stimulus. These results extend previous findings showing that neither direct shaping nor immediate reinforcement is necessary for operant conditioning. However, the present results demonstrate that the speed and extent of conditioning depends on the temporal relation between the response and the reinforcer. The findings are discussed in terms of a conditioned reinforcement analysis of the stimuli produced by operant responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents topic areas of human operant behavior (HOB) literature published since 1983. Percentage of representation of HOBs in reports; Frequency of HOB publications; Content area of research; Subject populations; Identification of authoritative HOB papers; Topical bibliography.

Presents a study on the responding changes across introductory psychology tests. Responding across sessions as a general characteristic of animal behavior; Pattern of responding across the sessions; Implications of changes in response rates to operant psychology.

Presents a study attempting to separate operant from respondent behavior in pigeons. Requiring of pigeons to depress foot treadle; Experimental procedure; Pecking of stimulus key by birds even when response was not required.

Investigates how methylphenidate hydrochloride affects the spatial and temporal distributions of responses in operant conditioning of rats. Effects of Ritalin on response stimulation; Differential effects of psychomotor stimulants on operant behavior; Analysis of sequences of responses; Use of traditional operant recording devices.

Examines the effect of disparities in reinforcement frequency on human free-operant cooperative responding. Role of cooperative responding to the social interactions which establish and maintain social groups and institutions; Proportion of cooperative responding; Cooperative and independent response rates.

Investigates the degree of stimulus control of free-operant avoidance through two probe procedures that assesses stimulus control within a single session. Discrimination procedure's use of visual stimuli; Imposition of a probe procedure on the baseline conditions in every second or third session.

Presents the results of two experiments with human subjects which investigated the effects of response cost on several unpunished free-operant responses. Definitions of punishment; Dunham's studies; Long-term effects; Immediate effects; Baseline stage and response-cost stage.