Response elimination in rats with schedules of omission training, including yoked and response-independent reinforcement comparisons

After rats were trained to lever press, response elimination began with factorial combinations of fixed vs variable and adjusting vs constant omission training schedules. A time interval scheduling reinforcement remained the same in a constant schedule, and its length was increased as response rate declined in the adjusting schedule. A variable time (VT) response-independent reinforcement schedule followed response elimination to test the durability of response cessation. Experiment I included groups whose reinforcement was yoked to that received by the omission schedule groups. Rate of response elimination was faster with an adjusting than a constant schedule, and slightly faster with a variable than a fixed schedule. There were no significant differences in rate of response elimination between omission schedule and yoked groups. Shorter delay of reinforcement tended to increase rate of response elimination. In the subsequent VT durability test all groups displayed near-zero response rates. In Experiment II adjusting fixed and variable omission schedules, including yoked groups, were compared with fixed time (FT) and VT reinforcement schedules. Response elimination was slower in the FT and VT groups, and they responded more in a subsequent VT durability test. It was concluded that differential reinforcement of other behavior fails to account for these omission training effects, and suggestions were made for an analysis based on the correlation between response and reinforcement rate.     

Probabilistic contingency theories of animal conditioning: A critical analysis

Seven contingency theories of classical and instrumental conditioning were defined in relation to the contingency matrix and to six separate probabilities which can be derived from this matrix. These theories were compared on the basis of formal similarities and differences, and were judged against three separate empirical variables which have been discussed in the contingency literature: the duration of the intertrial interval, partial reinforcement, and negative contingencies between the two events of conditioning. All previous theories had some difficulty predicting the effects of one or more of these variables upon animal conditioning. Also, some formulas make the unusual prediction that there will be less conditioning when there is more than one conditioning trial. The paper concluded with an extensive discussion of the problems that are created by conditioning events with temporal extension; events which are then categorized by a contingency matrix which has no temporal character. Some possible solutions to the problems were discussed.     

The role of self-attribution differences in the utilization of social comparison information

A study is reported that investigated the effects of receiving social comparison information which implied individual's behavior was inconsistent with his/her self-ascribed trait. The effects of this information on subsequent self-labeling and behavior involving a similar task were found to be mediated by the attributional style of the subject. The social comparison information caused subjects to reevaluate their relevant self-labels regardless of their attributional style. However, only self-attributors also changed their behavior on a later task as a result of exposure to the comparison information. These findings and their implications were discussed with regard to self-attribution and the maintenance of traitbehavior consistency.     

On the relationship of hardiness to the Type A behavior pattern: Perception of life events versus coping with life events

A correlational study examined the relationship between perceptions of life events and psychological distress with regard to the moderating effects of personality. Subjects assessed for both hardiness (S. C. Kobasa, 1979, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1–11) and Type A behavior (M. Friedman & R. Rosenman, 1974, Type A Behavior and Your Heart, New York: Knopf) completed the Langner psychiatric symptom inventory, reported life events for the previous year, and rated each event for its desirability, controllability, and foreseeability. Results indicated that an accumulation of events perceived as undesirable was associated with distress for subjects low in hardiness. In contrast, events perceived as moderately controllable or uncontrollable, regardless of their desirability, were associated with increased distress for Type A's. The likelihood of experiencing any given event was not related to any personality type. However, hardy individuals differed from their low hardy counterparts in that, on average, they were more likely to perceive an event as desirable and controllable. No such perceptual biases were observed between Type A and B subjects. The discussion focuses on the combination of personality variables and the moderating effects of perceiving events versus coping with events in the stress-health relationship.     

Effects of socialization on the physiological detection of deception

Effects of socialization on the physiological detection of deception using the control question test (CQT) were explored in three mock crime experiments. Subjects were 168 volunteers from criminal, community, and college student populations. Socialization was measured by the Socialization (So) scale of the California Psychological Inventory. All subjects were given a CQT using standard field techniques. The physiological data were blindly evaluated by a semiobjective field scoring technique and previously developed discriminant function. There were no effects of socialization on the accuracy of classification by the semiobjective field scoring or the discriminant function. A modest negative relationship was found between socialization scores and differential reactivity in the CQT as indicated by correlations with the semiobjective (r = −.22) and discriminant scores (r = −.17). It was concluded that socialization is not an important variable for field applications of the CQT.     

Relative persistence of avoidance and positively reinforced behavior

In one experiment with rats, and a second with pigeons, subjects were trained on a schedule in which identical response dependencies applied to intermittent receipt of positive reinforcement (PR) for one group and avoidance (AV) of shock for a second group. After obtaining comparable stable training performance for groups PR and AV, persistence tests were conducted with a traditional extinction (EXT) procedure vs. response-independent (FREE) delivery of positive reinforcers or shocks. In both experiments, response elimination was rapid in EXT for groups PR and AV, and responding tended to be maintained in groups PR and AV in the FREE persistence test. These results contradict the widely held assumption that avoidance behavior is unusually resistant to extinction, and they call for a re-examination of elimination of avoidance responding.     

A two-phase model account of aversive classical conditioning performance in humans and rabbits

A two-phase model was applied to classical conditioning performance in man and rabbits. During phase 1, response probability remained constant. During phase 2, response probability generally increased, although one operator was sufficient for a majority of Ss and two operators were required for a minority of Ss. The latter Ss exhibited increases in responding after a CR trial and decreases in responding after a non-CR trial. The pattern of parameters was similar for man and rabbits. In man, increases in UCS intensity resulted in a decrease in the duration of phase 1 and an increase in the limit of the operators for those Ss requiring more than a single operator to describe performance during phase 2. The value of employing a model to describe the data and understand the effects of independent variable manipulation was discussed.     

Within-compound associations between the context and the conditioned stimulus

Three experiments were conducted to test for the presence of associations between contextual cues and the nominal conditioned stimulus (CS) in fear conditioning. Rats were given tone-footshock pairings and were tested for their fear of the nominal CS, the tone, in a different context. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that rats given nonreinforced exposure to the training context following conditioning were less fearful of the CS. Experiment 3 indicated that additional footshock presentations in the training context following conditioning produced greater fear of the CS. In both procedures postconditioning treatments designed to directly alter only the associative strength of the training context yielded parallel changes in the conditioned response to the CS. These data suggest that within-compound associations are formed between the context and the CS during classical conditioning.     

Quasireinforcement: Control of behavior by second-order interval schedules

Pigeons were trained on a variable-interval 66-sec schedule of reinforcement that was segmented into either fixed- or variable-interval 10-sec components. Three-second access to food followed some components according to the overall VI 66-sec schedule, but 3-sec periods of nonreinforcement followed the other components. With both FI 10-sec and VI 10-sec segments, overall response rates were generally higher when the completion of unreinforced segments was signaled by a red key (never paired with food) than when it was unsignaled. Response rates during the red-key periods dropped to zero. Brief presentations of the red key engendered the distinctive (FI or VI) patterns of responding which would be expected if each segment were followed by food. These data demonstrate behavioral control by brief stimuli which are not paired with primary reinforcement and show that such control may develop even when the sequences of behavior required to produce food or brief stimuli are variable in duration.     

Effects of toy guns and airplanes on children's antisocial free play behavior.

The effects of toy guns and toy airplanes on children's antisocial (aggression and rule-breaking) behavior was investigated in two settings (ten children in Study I and 13 in Study II) during 30-min free play sessions. Four-and 5-year-old children were observed during 15–16 free play sessions. During some sessions the children played either with (novel, aggressive) toy guns or with (novel, nonaggressive) toy airplanes in addition to their usual toys. In both studies, the toy guns treatment produced a reliably higher rate of antisocial behavior than the average of the toy airplaines and the usual toys. The novel-nonaggressive toy airplanes also increased the rate of antisocial behavior as compared to usual toys in Study II. The results were related primarily to Berkowitz's and Bandura's analyses of aggressive behavior, but they were related also to other theoretical models which predict stimulus control of behavior.