The acquisition and maintenance of behavioral skills: a response to Michael

A response to Michael's (1980) presidential address to the Association for Behavior Analysis is presented. The position is taken that in many instances we have failed to adopt a behavioral approach to dealing with problems within our field concomitant with the shift from an emphasis on behaviorism and a science of behavior to technology. It is argued that we need to be sensitive to the data and consider the contingencies that are operating within the culture. A general strategy and some tactics are presented to acquire and maintain behavioral skills.     

The importance of theory: response to Brenner (2000)

L. Brenner's (2000) critique of I. Erev, T. S. Wallsten and D. V. Budescu (1994) focuses on their (a) use of a model to explain the paradox of the same data appearing to suggest over- and underconfidence, depending on how they are analyzed; (b) definitions of true judgment and error; and (c) specific use of judgments transformed to log-odds and a model formulated in those terms. The authors of the present article strongly disagree with the first point and discuss the importance of using models to interpret data. With regard to the second, the authors admit that the constructs of true judgment and error are poorly named but dispute L. Brenner's specific criticisms. Concerning the third, the authors had not claimed that the log-odds metric has any special status in judgment research and thus agree with L. Brenner's basic point.     

Infant-directed language following a brief behavioral parenting intervention: The importance of language quality

Behavioral parenting interventions decrease early childhood behavior problems and increase positive parenting skills. However, few studies have examined the impact of low intensity interventions for infants at risk for behavior problems on changes in parent language. This study examined the effect of a brief parenting intervention, the Infant Behavior Program, on changes in parent linguistic input and its influence on infant language. Participants were 58 mothers and their12- to 15-month-olds, with elevated levels of behavioral problems. Mothers and their infants were from primarily Hispanic and low-income backgrounds. Mother-infant dyads were randomly assigned to receive the Infant Behavior Program or standard pediatric primary care. Mothers receiving the Infant Behavior Program provided more linguistic input, which indirectly influenced infant language, and suggest targeting infants at risk for behavior problems can have a broader impact on language development.     

The importance of behavioral and cognitive factors in heterosexual-social anxiety1

Subject groups were classified on the basis of behavioral ratings for degree of anxiety exhibited and level of social skill displayed during a simulated dating interaction. Subjects were then asked to view and evaluate their own skill performance and the performance of bogus subjects during the same interaction when presented on videotapes. All subject groups were accurate in rating the performance of the bogus subjects but the high anxious/high skill subjects underestimated (in comparison to judge's ratings) their own skill while high anxious/low skill subjects accurately assessed their poor performance. Implications of the establishment of two types of heterosexual-socially anxious subjects were drawn for both clinical practice and research.     

The use of operant technology to measure behavioral priorities in captive animals

Addressing the behavioral priorities of captive animals and the development of practical, objective measures of the value of environmental resources is a principal objective of animal welfare science. In theory, consumer demand approaches derivedfrom human microeconomics should provide validmeasures of the value of environmental resources. In practice, however, a number of empirical and theoretical problems have rendered these measures difficult to interpret in studies with animals. A common approach has been to impose a cost on access to resources and to use time with each resource as a measure of consumption to construct demand curves. This can be recorded easily by automatic means, but in a number of studies, it has been found that animals compensate for increased cost of access with longer visit time. Furthermore, direct observation of the test animals’ behavior has shown that resource interaction is more intense once the animals have overcome higher costs. As a consequence, measures based on time with the resource may underestimate resource consumption at higher access costs, and demand curves derived from these measures may not be a true reflection of the value of different resources. An alternative approach to demand curves isreservation price, which is the maximum price individual animals are prepared to pay to gain access to resources. In studies using this approach, farmed mink (Mustela vison) paid higher prices for food and swimming water than for resources such as tunnels, water bowls, pet toys, and empty compartments. This indicates that the mink placed a higher value on food and swimming water than on other resources.     

Hypnotic blindness: a behavioral and experiential analysis

This research examined the influence of visual information on a decision task that subjects were administered during hypnotically suggested blindness. Real, hypnotizable subjects and simulating, unhypnotizable subjects were tested in two experiments. Experiment 1 focused on behavioral responses, and Experiment 2 focused on experiential reactions. In both experiments, the findings indicated that the behavioral responses of reals were influenced by visual information despite their reported blindness. The behavioral responses of reals and simulators were essentially similar. The experiential data in Experiment 2 provided information about the phenomenal nature of subjects' reported blindness. The experimental reactions of reals and simulators were essentially different. The research is discussed in terms of the issues that need to be considered in the development of a model of hypnotic blindness.     

Zinc-induced peripheral anosmia and behavioral responses to novelty in mice: a quantitative-genetic analysis

Adult male mice were made anosmic by intranasal flushing with a 5% zinc sulfate solution. Twelve behavioral variables were measured in treated as well as saline-irrigated control animals placed in a novel environment. The genetic underpinnings and the genotype-treatment interactions with regard to these behaviors were analyzed in a classical Mendelian cross between the inbred strains C57BL/6 and DBA/2 and in a full 4 X 4 diallel cross, replicated five times, between these strains and strains C3H/St an CPB-K. Based on the hypothesis of an evolutionary history of directional selection for a well-balanced information-processing system, one might expect directional dominance for decrease in exploration after anosmization. Although decreases were found for several behavioral phenotypes, only few and relatively unimportant genotype-treatment interactions were present. This absence of any kind of genetic variation for behavioral change after anosmization points to an extremely strong directional selection which has eliminated all less favorable alleles. The findings support the hypothesis of directional selection for an efficient olfactory information-processing system.     

The touch-sensitive screen as a flexible response device in CAI and behavioral research

Two different touch-sensitive surface units are described and evaluated from a technical as well as an applications standpoint, with particular emphasis on their use as response devices in computer-assisted instruction with young children. Several other interesting touch-sensitive surface concepts and laboratory applications are also described.     

The analysis of behavioral momentum

Learned behavior varies in its resistance to change, depending on the rate of reinforcement. Resistance to change may be characterized as behavioral momentum, which in turn may be analyzed into terms corresponding to mass and velocity in classical physics. Behavioral mass may be inferred from changes in response rate when experimental conditions are altered. Relevant data were obtained by training pigeons to peck a key on two-component multiple variable-interval, variable-interval schedules. Six pigeons were studied on three pairs of variable-interval schedules in all possible orders. When performance stabilized, resistance to change was assessed by arranging response-independent food during periods between components and by extinction. For each operation, the data for all schedule performances converged onto a single function, permitting estimation of the ratio of behavioral masses for each pair of schedules. The response-independent food data suggested that the ratio of behavioral masses is a power function of the ratio of reinforcement rates and that behavioral mass may be measured on a ratio scale.     

The quantity and quality of marital interaction related to marital satisfaction: A behavioral analysis

An assessment instrument is presented for the evaluation of the quantity and quality of dyadic interaction, as well as for the daily recording of behaviors presented and omitted which influence marital satisfaction. Comparison of data from ten happy couples and from ten couples entering therapy indicated two distinct dysfunctional patterns among distressed couples, with significantly different patterns of time-together and positive/negative ratios differentiating the happy versus therapy groups. Independent behavioral recording for 14 consecutive days significantly increased husband-wife agreement on a traditional adjustment questionnaire without significantly increasing or decreasing the level of satisfaction being assessed. There was no difference between groups as to interspousal agreement on amount of time together. However, the happy couples agreed on daily quality ratings of the 72 15-minute segments significantly more often than did the distressed couples. Couples at the extremes of the happy-distressed continuum reported rewarding and punishing, respectively, in response to the partners presence, regardless of behaviors emitted. Midrange happy couples defined "pleasant" as positive behaviors presented; midrange distressed couples defined "pleasant" as negative behaviors omitted. Theoretical and clinical implications of behavioral analysis of sequential patterns are discussed.     

Personality stability in late adulthood: a behavioral genetic analysis

A sample of 833 twins from the Minnesota Twin Study of Adult Development and Aging completed the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; Tellegen, 1982) twice, averaging 59.4 (sd=9.7) years of age at first and 64.4 (sd=10.2) years of age at second testing (average retest interval 5.0 years, sd=2.36, range 1.0-10.4 years). Both means and standard deviations of scale scores were extremely stable from first to second testing. In addition, sample participants tended to retain their rank order on the scales (average r=.76 across scales). Bivariate biometric analyses showed that the genetic influences on most of the scale scores were almost perfectly correlated across the two waves (range .95 to 1.00). The nonshared environmental influences were also highly correlated across the two waves (range .53 to .73). Models specifying identical variance components at the two time points and fixing the genetic correlation to 1.00 provided improved fit. The results suggest that the high stability of personality in later adulthood has a strong genetic foundation, supplemented by stability of environmental effects.     

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.     

Dopamine transporter gene moderates response to behavioral parent training in children with ADHD: a pilot study

There is great variability in the degree to which children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) improve through behavioral treatments. This study investigates the influence of the dopamine transporter gene (SCL6A3/DAT1) on outcome of behavioral parent training (BPT). Study subjects were a subsample (n = 50, for whom DAT1 genotypes were available) of a randomized controlled BPT effectiveness study (N = 94) comparing BPT plus ongoing routine clinical care (RCC) versus RCC alone in referred children (4-12 years old) with ADHD. Treatment outcome was based on parent-reported ADHD symptoms and behavioral problems. Presence of 2 versus no or 1 DAT1 10-repeat allele served as moderator variable. Time × Treatment × Genotype effect was analyzed with repeated-measures analysis of variance, controlling for baseline medication status. Results indicate that DAT1 moderated treatment response (p = .009). In children with no or 1 DAT1 10-repeat allele, superior treatment effects of BPT + RCC compared with RCC alone were present (p = .005), which was not the case in children with 2 DAT1 10-repeat alleles (p = .57). Our findings suggest that genetic differences in DAT1 in children with ADHD influence their susceptibility to a behavioral intervention directed at shaping their environment through their parents. The role of the dopamine system in motivation and learning and in the aberrant sensitivity to reinforcement in children with ADHD may explain this moderating effect, given that the management of contingencies is typically addressed in BPT.     

The importance of response type to the relationship between temporal order and numerical magnitude

Time, number, and space may be represented in the brain by a common set of cognitive/neural mechanisms. In support of this conjecture, Schwarz and Eiselt (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 35, 989-1004, 2009) found that numerically smaller digits were perceived to occur earlier than larger digits, and they concluded that this difference reflected faster processing of smaller numbers. This difference, however, could have been related to a response bias, whereby participants map responses of "which first" onto the "first" number along the mental number line. In Experiment 1, participants made temporal order judgements between digits presented to the left or to the right. The point of subjective simultaneity was shifted so that the 9 had to be presented before the 2 in order for simultaneity to be perceived. This difference could reflect either faster processing of the 2 or a response bias. Experiments 2a and 2b eliminated response biases by using simultaneity judgements, which have no logical stimulus mapping. Both of the latter experiments established that the 2 was not processed faster than the 9. Although the present results relate specifically to numerical magnitude and temporal order associations, they also have broader implications. Other studies have reported associations between dimensions such as size, duration, and number and have attributed these to parietal mechanisms. Such associations, however, may also be an artefact of response biases.