The effects of feedback with chronically institutionalized mental patients

The ability of two female and one male chronically institutionalized adult mental patients to comprehend and retain feedback on individualized problem behaviors and the effect of that feedback on changes in the occurrences of those behaviors were examined. Feedback on five problem behaviors was provided to each subject within a small therapy group setting employing a multiple baseline across subjects experimental design. Comprehension and retention tests occurred two, five, and seven days following the feedback in the small groups, while the rates of the occurrences of the problem behaviors were time-sampled throughout the subjects' waking day via use of the Time-Sample Behavioral Checklist (Paul, 1987). Results indicated that, although there were no changes in the rates of occurrence, these subjects were able to retain and understand the feedback on their problem behaviors. Implications for further investigations and for the utility of feedback with chronically institutionalized adults are discussed.     

The effects of delayed auditory feedback on the overt behaviors of stutterers

This study investigated the differential effect of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) upon general (e.g., repetitions) and specific (e.g., repetitions of initial, medial, and final syllables) overt types of dysfluent behaviors. Ten moderate to severe stutterers performed an oral reading task under both NDAF and DAF (200 msec). DAF resulted in a significant increase in the total number of dysfluencies but had a differential effect upon certain general and specific behaviors. Blocks decreased significantly, prolongations increased significantly, and repetitions and interjections did not change significantly in frequency of occurence. To a limited extent, DAF had a differential effect on specific behaviors. All specific prolongation behaviors increased significantly while only one specific block behavior (ddelays in starting words) decreased. The authors discuss these results in terms of the vocal changes that occurred under DAF and speculate as to their importance in establishing fluency. DAF is viewed as promoting prolongations and prolongations are viewed as inhibiting excessive stoppages of the breathstream, thus promoting fluency (e.g., delays in starting words).     

A token reinforcement system for large wards of institutionalized adolescents

Problems associated with the application of token systems to large public institutions for male and female adolescents are discussed. The present experiments demonstrate that two specific behavior problems on an adolescent ward of a state hospital could be controlled through the use of contingent points via a rapid-delivery token procedure and backed up by reinforcers already available in the hospital setting. Sixty male and female patients were maintained by a staff of five aides. Experiment I examined the effects of verbal demands and contingent points on room maintenance behavior. Experiment II examined the effects of verbal demands and contingent points on ward maintenance behavior. Contingent points produced substantial effects on both types of behavior. Several design criteria are elaborated which facilitate working within the limitations of a setting with low priorities on research.     

Effect of information on reducing inappropriate expectations and requests for antibiotics

People often expect antibiotics when they are clinically inappropriate (e.g., for viral infections). This contributes significantly to physicians’ decisions to prescribe antibiotics when they are clinically inappropriate, causing harm to the individual and to society. In two pre-registered studies employing UK general population samples (n₁ = 402; n₂ = 190), we evaluated the relationship between knowledge and beliefs with antibiotic expectations, and the effects of information provision on such expectations. We conducted a correlational study (study 1), in which we examined the role of antibiotic knowledge and beliefs and an experiment (study 2) in which we assessed the causal effect of information provision on antibiotic expectations. In study 1, we found that both knowledge and beliefs about antibiotics predicted antibiotic expectations. In study 2, a 2 (viral information: present vs. absent) × 2 (antibiotic information: present vs. absent) experimental between-subjects design, information about antibiotic efficacy significantly reduced expectations for antibiotics, but viral aetiology information did not. Providing antibiotic information substantially diminishes inappropriate expectations of antibiotics. Health campaigns might also aim to change social attitudes and normative beliefs, since more complex sociocognitive processes underpin inappropriate expectations for antibiotics.     

Body weight and response acquisition with delayed reinforcement.

The relation between body weight and responding established with unsignaled delayed reinforcement was investigated. In three experiments, naive rats were deprived to either 70%, 80%, or 90% of ad libitum weight and were then exposed to tandem variable-interval 15-s differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior 30-s schedules. The tandem schedule defined a resetting unsignaled delay-of-reinforcement procedure. In the first experiment, speed of magazine training, acquisition of lever pressing, and final rate of lever pressing were related to body weight. In the next experiment, lever pressing was established and maintained in rats that were magazine trained at 70% of ad libitum weight but that were then exposed to the delay procedure at 90% of ad libitum weight. Responding did not change consistently either across or within subjects in subsequent conditions in which body weight was manipulated. In the final experiment, lever pressing was established and maintained with delayed reinforcement in the absence of magazine training for each of 2 rats at 70% and for 1 of 2 rats at 90% of ad libitum weight. The results further illuminate the conditions under which responding can be established in the absence of training and when such responses are reinforced only following an unsignaled delay period.     

Preference for unreliable reinforcement in children with mental retardation: the role of conditioned reinforcement

We examined the effects of conditioned reinforcement on children's choice between reliable (100%) and unreliable (50%) reinforcement under various stimulus conditions in a concurrent-chains procedure. The study was conducted across three experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 were conducted under conditions similar to basic laboratory work and consisted of participants selecting from one of two black boxes (placed on a table) that were correlated with different reinforcement schedules. In Experiment 3, we assessed a participant's preference for unreliable reinforcement during conditions in which the target responses were aggression and mands. Results of the three experiments showed that the participants preferred unreliable reinforcement under certain conditions. Findings are discussed regarding the role of specific stimuli (i.e., items correlated with a reinforcement schedule, adult reactions) as conditioned reinforcers and how they may influence children's preference for a response (e.g., aggression, self-injury) that produces reinforcement on a leaner schedule than a socially desirable response (e.g., mands).     

Interdependent and independent group contingencies with immediate and delayed reinforcement for controlling classroom behavior

Group-oriented contingency systems have enjoyed widespread acceptability, use, and success in classroom settings. Despite their increased use, group contingency systems have at least two disadvantages. First, one or more students may spoil reinforcement for the rest of the class, and, second, the behavior of the entire class often deteriorates as a result of the loss of access to reinforcement. The present study investigated the use of an interdependent group contingency for on-task and disruptive behavior along with an independent group contingency for disruptive behavior to prevent children from spoiling group reinforcement. Immediate and delayed consequences were built into the program to circumvent behavioral deterioration. The results demonstrated that the combination of group contingency systems and immediate and delayed consequences were effective in reducing levels of off-task and disruptive behavior and in increasing on-task behavior. The findings were discussed in terms of the combination of treatment components, potential for generalization, the need for empirical research on social validity, and the practicality and effectiveness of this intervention package for psychologists in the schools.     

Conditioned reinforcement and choice with delayed and uncertain primary reinforcers.

In an adjusting-delay choice procedure, pigeons could peck on either a red key or a green key. A peck on the red key always led to a delay associated with red houselights and then food. The delay was adjusted over trials to estimate an indifference point--a delay at which the two keys were chosen about equally often. In some conditions, a peck on the green key led to food on all trials after delays of either 10 s or 30 s, and green houselights were lit during the delays. In other conditions, food was presented on only half of the green-key trials. If the green houselights continued to occur on both reinforcement and nonreinforcement trials, preference for the green key always decreased. Preference for the green key also decreased if half of the trials had 30-s houselights followed by food and the other half had no green houselights and no food. However, preference for the green key actually increased if half of the trials had 10-s green houselights followed by food and the other half had no green houselights followed by no food. The latter condition therefore demonstrated a case in which preference for an alternative increased when food was removed from half of the trials. The results suggest that the red and green houselights served as conditioned reinforcers. A hyperbolic decay model (Mazur, 1989) provided good predictions for all conditions by assuming that the strength of a conditioned reinforcer is inversely related to the total time spent in its presence before food is delivered.     

Hand Test indices of violent and destructive behavior for institutionalized mental retardates.

The Hand Test (Wagner, 1962) and the maladaptive behavior scale of the AAMD Adaptive Behavior Scale (ABS) were administered to 78 institutionalized retardates (46 males and 32 females) in order to investigate the relationship between violent and destructive behavior and two purported indicants of violent and destructive acting-out behavior on the Hand Test, the acting-out-score (AOS and movement-content response (ACT-MOV). Significant correlations between the two Hand Test indices and the number of types of violent and destructive behavior evinced during a three-month period were obtained.     

Acquisition of a spatially defined operant with delayed reinforcement.

Two experiments investigated the role of an immediate, response-produced auditory stimulus during acquisition, via delayed reinforcement, of a response selected to control for possible unprogrammed, operandum-related sources of response feedback. Experimentally naive rats were exposed to a delayed-food reinforcement condition, specifically a tandem fixed-ratio 1 differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior 30-s schedule. The response was defined as breaking a photocell beam located near the ceiling at the rear of the operant conditioning chamber. In Experiment 1, rates of photobeam breaking by each rat increased from near zero, regardless of the presence or absence of a tone that immediately followed the response initiating the delay interval. Though not essential, the tone facilitated response acquisition and resulted in more efficient response patterns at stability. Experiment 2 demonstrated that photobeam-breaking response rates under the delayed reinforcement contingency exceeded those in a preceding baseline condition in which no food was delivered. In addition, upon introduction of the delayed reinforcement procedure, correspondence between response patterns and the requirements of the reinforcement schedule increased over baseline levels in the absence of a food contingency. Together with a previous report of Lattal and Gleeson (1990), the present results suggest that response acquisition with delayed reinforcement is a robust phenomenon that may not depend on a mechanically defined response or an immediate external stimulus change to mediate the temporal gap between response and reinforcer.     

Effects of D-amphetamine on response acquisition with immediate and delayed reinforcement.

The present study examined in 8-hour sessions the effects of d-amphetamine (1.0, 5.6, and 10 mg/kg) on the acquisition of lever-press responding in rats that were exposed to procedures in which water delivery was delayed by 0, 8, or 16 seconds relative to the response that produced it. Both nonresetting- and resetting-delay conditions were studied. Although neither shaping nor autoshaping occurred, substantial levels of operative-lever responding developed under all conditions in which responses produced water. The lowest dose (1.0 mg/kg) of d-amphetamine either had no effect on or increased operative-lever pressing, whereas higher doses typically produced an initial reduction in lever pressing. Nonetheless, overall rates of operative-lever pressing at these doses were as high as, or higher than, those observed with vehicle. Thus, response acquisition was observed under all reinforcement procedures at all drug doses. In the absence of the drug, most responding occurred on the operative lever when reinforcement was immediate. Such differential responding also developed under both nonresetting- and resetting-delay procedures when the delay was 8 seconds, but not when it was 16 seconds. d-Amphetamine did not affect the development of differential responding under any procedure. Thus, consistent with d-amphetamine's effects under repeated acquisition procedures, the drug had no detrimental effect on learning until doses that produced general behavioral disruption were administered.     

Acquisition of cocaine self-administration with unsignaled delayed reinforcement in rhesus monkeys

Six experimentally naive rhesus monkeys produced 0.01 mg/kg/infusion cocaine by lever pressing under a tandem fixed-ratio 1 differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior schedule. One lever press initiated an unsignaled 15- or 30-s delay culminating in cocaine delivery. Each press made during the delay reset the delay interval. With two exceptions, responding was acquired and maintained at higher rates than responding on a second (inoperative) lever. For the exceptions, a cancellation contingency was arranged in which each formerly inoperative-lever response reset the tandem schedule. This manipulation reduced presses on the inoperative lever. Subsequently, the consequences of responding on the two levers were reversed, and the monkeys again responded at higher rates on the operative lever. As a comparison, 3 additional experimentally naive monkeys received response-independent cocaine deliveries. Although lever pressing was observed, it extinguished and was subsequently reestablished under the tandem schedule. The results suggest that although response-reinforcer contiguity is not required for cocaine to acquire reinforcing functions, a response-reinforcer relation appears necessary.     

Inhibitory stimulus control and the magnitude of delayed reinforcement

The key pecking of pigeons was reinforced according to a variable-interval 1-min schedule during each of two successively presented stimuli. When the key was illuminated by a black line on a white background, reinforcement was delayed for 10 sec. When the key was illuminated by a plain white light, reinforcement was not delayed. For half of the subjects, the delayed reinforcer was 4.0-sec access to mixed grain, and for the remaining subjects it was 1.5-sec access. The immediate reinforcer was 1.5-sec access for all subjects. All subjects responded at a lower rate during the presentation of the black line; no between-group difference in terms of terminal response rate during the presentation of the line was found. However, subjects that received 4.0 sec of delayed reinforcement responded at a lower terminal rate during presentation of the plain white light than subjects that received 1.5 sec of delayed reinforcement. A subsequent generalization test along the line-orientation dimension produced flatter U-shaped gradients for subjects that received 4.0-sec of delayed reinforcement.