Complex form of instrumental behavior of dogs

A complex form of higher nervous activity, conditional reflex transswitching or switching, was elaborated in four dogs under conditions of unrestrained movements, freedom of reinforcement choice (food or water), place of reinforcement determined by situation factors as well as independent switching on of conditional stimuli. It was shown that motivated goal-directed behavior of the animals was determined by activation of forward and backward connections. The chains of instrumental conditioned reflexes forming in the final analysis the complex behavior are developed according to the “trialand-error” principle. In the instrumental conditioned reflexes there are two constantly coexisting types of mutually complementing conditioned connections of the signal with reinforcement—direct and indirect. In experiments with unrestrained conditions of animals and independent regulation of the experiment, one of the frequently encountered physiological mechanisms of generalization appears to be efferent and afferent generalization.     

Control of instrumental behavior by deprivation stimuli

In Experiment 1, rats were given one trial per day in a straight alley under food deprivation on half of the trials and under water deprivation on the other half. Wet mash was available in the goal box under food deprivation for Group H and under water deprivation for Group T, the other deprivation being nonrewarded for each group. After 15--18 trials both groups ran significantly faster on their rewarded than on their nonrewarded deprivation days. A third group showed that random variation of alley color retarded formation of the discrimination. A fourth group was run in a conditional discrimination in which under food deprivation wet mash was available in a black alley, nonreward in a white alley, and vice versa under water deprivation. This group took 114 trials to begin running significantly faster in their rewarded than in their nonrewarded alley under each deprivation. In Experiment 2, it was shown that prior learning about deprivation cues "blocks" learning about alley color when alley color is subsequently presented in compound with the deprivation cue but that when both alley color and deprivation cues are relevant from the start of training, the rat learns about both cues. It is suggested that previous studies have underestimated the importance of deprivation cues by using conditional discrimination designs, choice measures rather than speeds, and parameters that are not optimal for discrimination learning.     

The sensory nature of reward in instrumental behavior

Improvement in the sensory state, or “better-being,” achieved either through obtaining desirable sensations or through escaping undesirable sensations, is considered the essential value which maintains the instrumental behavior. This value may vary depending on such factors as the intensity of the stimulus producing sensations, the effects of its previous occurrence, and the changes in the internal and external environment. Methods of evaluation of sensory “better-being” by means of measuring instrumental, autonomic and EEG responses are discussed.     

Optimization and the matching law as accounts of instrumental behavior

The interaction between instrumental behavior and environment can be conveniently described at a molar level as a feedback system. Two different possible theories, the matching law and optimization, differ primarily in the reference criterion they suggest for the system. Both offer accounts of most of the known phenomena of performance on concurrent and single variable-interval and variable-ratio schedules. The matching law appears stronger in describing concurrent performances, whereas optimization appears stronger in describing performance on single schedules.     

A microprocessor control and recording system for instrumental behavior research

This paper describes a miroprocessor system developed for experimental control and data collection in real time. By connecting the experimental equipment to the microprocessor via a serial communication interface, transmission of various animal test-chamber functions over greater distances with only a few cables is facilitated. The microprocessor is programmed on a host computer (PDP/8). A combined terminal station with a cassette deck is used for data and program storage.     

State anxiety reduces procrastinating behavior

Three experiments conducted in China and the US investigated the impact of state anxiety on behavioral procrastination. Participants were induced into a high- or a low-anxiety state and then given a period of 12 min either to practice for an upcoming test or entertain themselves (e.g., watch videos). The results showed that participants in a high-anxiety state spent more time practicing for the upcoming test than participants in a low-anxiety state. Impulsivity and trait procrastination were also measured. Impulsivity was found to be positively correlated with both trait procrastination and dilatory behavior. Overall the findings support a self-regulatory theory account such that the negative emotion associated with anxiety motivates people to increase the effort towards reaching a goal and take proactive measures for the most important task, thus reducing procrastination.     

Effect of reinforcer devaluation on discriminative control of instrumental behavior

Two experiments examined the effect of reinforcer devaluation on the ability of a discriminative stimulus (Sd) to control instrumental behavior in Sprague-Dawley rats. In Experiment 1 reinforcer devaluation reduced, but did not eliminate, the ability of the Sd to control performance of the original response and to transfer its control to a new response trained with the same reinforcer. The effect of devaluation was more complete in Experiment 2, in which the reinforcer was delivered directly into the oral cavity. However, retraining the response with a different reinforcer partially restored the ability of the Sd to control performance of that response. These results suggest that an Sd may not augment its trained responses when the reinforcer has been completely devalued but may promote responses with which it shares a reinforcer, as long as those responses are associated with some reinforcer that retains its value. The implications of these results for the way that discriminative stimuli control instrumental behavior are discussed.     

A contemporary behavior analysis of anxiety and avoidance

Despite the central status of avoidance in explaining the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders, surprisingly little behavioral research has been conducted on human avoidance. In the present paper, first we provide a brief review of the empirical literature on avoidance. Next, we describe the implications of research on derived relational responding and the transformation of functions for a contemporary behavioral account of avoidance, before providing several illustrative research examples of laboratory-based analogues of key clinical treatment processes. Finally, we suggest some challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for behavioral research on anxiety and avoidance.     

Facilitation of instrumental behavior by a Pavlovian appetitive conditioned stimulus

Three experiments examined appetitive Pavlovian-instrumental interactions by presenting separately trained conditioned stimuli (CSs) during reinforced instrumental responding in rabbits. Intra-oral reinforcement was used to minimize interference from peripheral responses such as magazine approach. In experiment 1, the rabbits were first trained to perform an instrumental head-raising response for sucrose reward. A conditioned jaw movement response was then established to a 2-sec CS by pairing it with sucrose; a control stimulus was unpaired with sucrose. Instrumental responding maintained by a variable-interval 40-sec schedule was enhanced during 10-sec presentations of the paired, but not the unpaired, CS. Responding on a variable-ratio 15 schedule was unaffected except on trials on which the pre-CS baseline response rate was low; in such cases the paired CS caused a long-lasting acceleration of responding. Noncontingent presentation of the sucrose reinforcer itself briefly suppressed responding but had no long-term effect. In Experiment 2, a CS that had been conditioned at a 10-sec duration produced the same pattern of effects as in the first study, indicating that facilitation resulted from CS presentation rather than from the frustrative effects of non-reinforcement of the CS. In Experiment 3 an inhibitory CS blocked facilitation by the excitatory CS but did not itself affect instrumental responding. These results support the view that Pavlovian processes play a positive role in instrumental performance and suggest that previous findings of suppression by a short-duration CS reflect peripheral interference. The dependence of facilitation on the baseline level of responding is discussed in terms of associative and motivational theories of Pavlovian mediation.     

Some conditions for the dissociation of consummatory and instrumental behavior in rats

To investigate whether consummatory and instrumental behavior depend upon different motivational factors, rats were trained to press a bar for saccharin solution, then given various treatments designed to reduce the palatability of saccharin, and finally tested for bar-pressing in extinction and for free intake of saccharin. Prefeeding with dextrose, prefeeding with saccharin, and association of saccharin with injections of lithium chloride all reduced intake of saccharin compared to control treatments, but only prefeeding with dextrose also reduced barpressing in extinction. Thus, performance of an instrumental response may depend upon need for food rather than appetite for it.     

Conditional fear,anxiety, and morphine-seeking behavior

TwoCebus albifrons monkeys were given discriminative operant conditioning with visual stimuli, with Sidman avoidance and punishment as the components. The instrumental response was an unelicited increase in skin conductance. Both animals had surgically implanted catheters for automatic injection of morphine into the heart. After autonomic conditioning, the animals were given the opportunity to self-administer the morphine by touching the primate press panel that displayed the visual stimuli. One contingency-free segment per session was used for morphine injection, while the contingencies remained in force during the other segments. One of the monkeys made significantly more skin conductance responses during avoidance than during punishment, and this monkey received ten times as many shocks in punishment. This monkey also made more responses overall and had a much higher heart rate than the other animal. The other monkey did not differentiate significantly autonomically and received equal numbers of shocks in avoidance and punishment. The monkey that showed autonomic differentiation made significantly (and increasingly) more panel-presses during punishment than during avoidance. The other animal showed hardly any tendency at all to panel-press.