The effect of behavioral response on affective evaluation

In the present research we investigated how action influences affective evaluation. In three experiments, participants conducted a sequence of go/no-go tasks, then evaluated the pleasantness of a novel shape. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 show that participants evaluated the shapes that appeared in the go trials more positively than the shapes that appeared in the no-go trials. In Experiment 3, the go/no-go task was conducted without the to-be-evaluated shapes present in the display. The results show that the shape stimuli following the go trials were evaluated more positively than the shape stimuli following the no-go trials, even when the shapes were not directly associated with the go/no-go task. Based on the present study, we suggest that activating or inhibiting a motoric action may play a critical role in modifying one's affective evaluation. Additionally, the present results suggest that effortful and non-default responses can negatively modulate affective evaluation by taxing an individual's cognitive load. Furthermore, we argue that individuals can potentially control their affective states through behavioral activation and inhibition.     

The effect of response force on avoidance rate

In a Sidman-avoidance schedule of counter losses for two human subjects, the loss-to-loss and response-to-loss intervals were 20 sec. The avoidance response was a vocal response that was louder than a minimum vocal requirement. This requirement was set at 80 db, 95 db, or 110 db. In addition to vocal responses meeting the minimum requirement, all responses exceeding a threshold of 75 db or louder were recorded. The rate of both above-threshold and avoidance responses decreased as the response-force requirement increased. Thus, high response-force requirements produced an effect on avoidance responding similar to its effect on positively reinforced responding.     

The effect of informative events on response rate

A single group of pigeons received two different training conditions presented on different response keys. Responding during the first component of each condition was reinforced, according to a fixed interval schedule, by gaining access to the second component. In the uninformative condition the second component consisted on every trial of the illumination of the response key for 10 sec, the key was then darkened and food presented with a probability of 0.5. In the informative condition half of the trials at the conclusion of the first component resulted in the key being darkened and no additional events were presented. On the remaining trials the second component was similar to that for the uninformative condition. The results from the first two stages revealed that responding during the first component was faster in the informative than uninformative condition when trials were presented separately. In the final stage, when the trials were presented simultaneously, the rate of responding during the first component was eventually similar in the two conditions, but subjects preferred the second component of the informative condition. These results suggest that events which are informative, or perhaps unpredictable, can support a higher response rate than those which are uninformative, or predictable.     

Concurrent performances: effect of punishment contingent on the switching response

Pigeons' key-pecking responses were maintained under concurrently available variable-interval schedules of reinforcement. Responses in the presence of two different key-colors were reinforced on two independent and concurrent variable-interval schedules of food reinforcement, each associated with one of the key colors (red or green). Pecks at a second key (changeover key), always white, would alternate the colors on the main key. In Exp. 1 and 2, electric shock of 50 msec duration followed immediately after changeovers. The proportion of responses in the presence of the color associated with the higher frequency of reinforcements per hour was a direct function of shock intensity contingent on changeovers. When both schedules provided equal number of reinforcements per hour, there was no systematic effect of shock intensity on response distribution. In Exp. 3, a timeout period was contingent on changeovers, and response distribution was a function of timeout length.     

The effect of Pavlovian stimuli on the acquisition of a new response

Three experiments explored the effects of response dependent stimuli which have had different types of contingent relationships with positive reinforcement. Results showed consistent differences in the effects of response dependent appetitive Pavlovian CS + s, CS ? s, and truly random control (TRC) stimuli on the acquisition of a new response. These differences were shown in both a free operant and a discrete-trial learning situation. Appetitive Pavlovian CS?s consistently produced lower levels of responding than did TRC stimuli, even in an experimental situation free of possible contrast effects. The results of these experiments extended a contingency analysis of acquired associations to appetitive conditioning and provided a clear demonstration of a conditioned reinforcement effect against a variety of control procedures.     

The effect of exercise on the selective performance of an instrumental response

Dogs were used to condition two instrumental reactions—bending of the left or of the right forepaw respectively. In the experimental situation a dish containing food was presented to the dog at a distance but could be drawn close and retained by lifting the forepaw to which (left or right) a lever had been attached. If both paws were simultaneously attached to levers, the dog had to choose between two reactions. Preliminary trials showed a right paw preference in spite of the equal effectiveness (food reinforcement) of the left paw. The aim of this experiment was to alter this right paw preference by a paradigm of differential practice with left paw dominance. The plan was to have ten training sessions followed by one test with choice. According to the probabilities, P_left = 0.8, P_right = 0.2, a random table was used to determine the order of the right-left paw attachments to the levers during training. In all, 1,000 training sessions and 100 tests with choice were carried out in each of three dogs. According to the training program, in every 100 training sessions the left paw had to perform the reaction a total of 80 times and 20 times by the right paw. An absolute alteration in paw preference occurred P_lelt = 1.0) even though both forepaws were equally effective in obtaining food reinforcement on the test trials. The present results indicate that not only the Law of Effect but Exercise is also important in instrumental conditioning.     

The effect of a masked stimulus on the response to the masking stimulus

Four experiments are reported in which the subjects had to respond to a target that masked a preceding prime via metacontrast masking. In one part of Experiment l, the subjects discriminated the target's shape (square or diamond) by a motor-choice reaction, and in another part they had to respond with a simple reaction. The prime was neutral (circular) with respect to the target's shape. The data showed a facilitation effect. In both tasks the reaction time was reduced by the masked prime. However, the reduction was more pronounced with simple reaction than with choice reaction. In the other experiments, additional primes were used with the same angular shapes as the targets. In Experiments 2 and 3, after discriminating the target's shape by a choice reaction, the subjects had to judge the prime's shape in a signal-detection task. While neither the d' value for discriminating the angular primes from the circular ones (Exp. 2) nor the d' value for distinguishing between the angular primes (Exp. 3) was different from zero, the choice-reaction data showed a congruency effect. With a congruent prime (i.e., a prime that had the same shape as the target), the reaction times were reduced. With an incongruent prime, the reaction times grew. In Experiment 4 the errors were investigated. The facilitation effect was present in the RT, but not in the number of errors, whereas the congruency effect was present in the number, but not in the RT of errors.While the facilitation effect can be attributed either to an unspecific activation by the masked prime or to an influence of the prime on attentional processes, the congruency effect can be explained by the assumption that the masked prime directly activates the specific response, which corresponds to the prime's shape.     

Influences of response position and hand posture on the orthogonal Simon effect

When lateralized responses are made to the locations of vertically arrayed stimuli, two types of mapping effect have been reported: an overall up–right/down–left advantage and mapping preferences that vary with response position. According to Cho and Proctor's (2003) multiple asymmetric codes account, these orthogonal stimulus–response compatibility effects are due to the correspondence of stimulus polarity and response polarity, as determined by the positions relative to multiple frames of reference. The present study examined these two types of orthogonal compatibility for situations in which participants made left–right responses to the colours of a vertically arrayed stimulus set, and stimulus location was irrelevant. Although a significant orthogonal Simon effect was not evident when responding at a centred, neutral response position, the effect was modulated by response eccentricity (Experiment 2) and hand posture (Experiment 3). These effects are qualitatively similar to those obtained when stimulus location is task relevant. The results imply that, as Proctor and Cho's (2006) polarity correspondence principle suggests, the stimulus polarity code activates the response code of corresponding polarity even when stimulus location is irrelevant to the task.     

Using drugs to modify the effect of response prevention on avoidance extinction

Amobarbital and chlordiazepoxide were administered during avoidance response prevention and the effect evaluated in the nondrugged state in a subsequent test for avoidance extinction. It was found that Ss administered 15 mg/kg and 30 mg/kg amobarbital, and 30 mg/kg chlordiazepoxide during response prevention differed significantly from the control Ss in extinction performance. Rather than showing either reduced avoidance performance or no difference with the nondrugged Ss, the Ss drugged during response prevention showed increased avoidance performance in the subsequent test of avoidance extinction. That is, preventing avoidance responding under a drugged (versus nondrugged) state produced increased resistance to extinction of the avoidance response.     

Influences of response position and hand posture on the orthogonal Simon effect

When lateralized responses are made to the locations of vertically arrayed stimuli, two types of mapping effect have been reported: an overall up-right/down-left advantage and mapping preferences that vary with response position. According to Cho and Proctor's (2003) multiple asymmetric codes account, these orthogonal stimulus-response compatibility effects are due to the correspondence of stimulus polarity and response polarity, as determined by the positions relative to multiple frames of reference. The present study examined these two types of orthogonal compatibility for situations in which participants made left-right responses to the colours of a vertically arrayed stimulus set, and stimulus location was irrelevant. Although a significant orthogonal Simon effect was not evident when responding at a centred, neutral response position, the effect was modulated by response eccentricity (Experiment 2) and hand posture (Experiment 3). These effects are qualitatively similar to those obtained when stimulus location is task relevant. The results imply that, as Proctor and Cho's (2006) polarity correspondence principle suggests, the stimulus polarity code activates the response code of corresponding polarity even when stimulus location is irrelevant to the task.