Reinforcement from the sucking environment and subsequent modification of sucking behavior in the human neonate

The reinforcing aspects of sucking behavior in 36 human newborns was examined in a limited instrumental conditioning paradigm where sucking was both operant and reinforcer. During training, response density (rate based on sucking opportunity time) and latency were measures of two components of nonnutritive sucking, contingent negative pressure suction, and incidental jaw movement. The strategy for determining the reinforcing aspects of sucking involved comparisons of three types of sucking stimuli as reinforcers. The nature of modified operant sucking was investigated during extinction by examining number of sucks per burst, number of bursts emitted, and interburst interval time. The feedback from sucking which acted as reinforcement was concluded to be response density. Sucking was modified by changes in pausing behavior, including response latency and pauses between bursts of sucks. The number of sucks per burst also showed a significant change under certain conditioning arrangements.     

An evaluation of time-sample measures of behavior

Continuous and time-sample measures of the in-seat behavior of a secretary were obtained. Measurement error, i.e., the extent to which the sample measures deviated from the continuous measure, was a function of the frequency of the sample measurements and the criterion used to score an example of the behavior. If the behavior had to be exhibited throughout the observational interval (whole-interval time sampling), there was a consistent underestimate of the continuous measure. If the behavior had to be exhibited only briefly within the observational interval (partial-interval time sampling), there was a consistent overestimate of the continuous measure. And, if the behavior had to be exhibited at the end of the observational interval (momentary time sampling), overestimations and underestimations of the continuous measure occurred about equally often. As expected, the more frequently the sample measures were made the closer was the agreement between the sample and continuous measures. Two conclusions concerning measurement error in interval time sampling were made. The first was that the error will be a function of the mean time per response. The second is that this error will not be consistent across experimental conditions.     

Aggressive behavior in the free-ranging rhesus monkeys of kathmandu,nepal

We present a composite sample of the aggressive behavior of free-ranging rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), recorded at two temples in Kathmandu, Nepal. We analyze the total number and the rate per monkey of threats, chases, attacks, fights, and aggressive acts directed at other species (principally humans), in order to elucidate social dynamics of the troop as a whole. Our 1,506 hours of observation were divided among the four seasons; between a.m. and p.m.; and among a temple yard, two parklands, and a forested garden. We found seasonal patterns to be the most important correlates of aggressive behavior. Habitat was a modulating influence, and time of day was the least important factor. Rates of aggression were generally higher per male monkey than per female. In terms of total aggression recorded, however, females instigated significantly more than males, both in encounters between monkeys and in aggression against other species. This finding is consistent with the females' greater numbers in the troop and with their lifelong membership in the troop. Analysis of behavior by social groups, rather than by individual rates, points up the iomportance of adult females and their social stability in troop behavior.     

Skinner and the rise of behavior modification and behavior therapy

Skinner is, without a doubt, one of the most predominant figures in the development of Behavior Modification and Behavior Therapy. Skinners' work is essential to the development of Behavior Modification and Behavior Therapy. Beginning with the social need for efficient psychotherapy, and after having generated a solid theoretical body of behavioral laws, Skinner indicated and also developed the appropriate path towards efficient interventions for unadaptive behavior. He developed a new theory regarding abnormal behavior (psychopathology), as well as a procedural model for evaluation (diagnosis) and intervention: "The functional analysis of behavior". His applications for this kind of work are pioneering and at the same time, he is the agglutinant figure of what we today call "Behavior Modification and/or Therapy". It is remarkable that a scientist could change the theories and practices of a discipline as radically as Skinner and his work did. His work, however, still has its limitations. The best way to acknowledge and pay tribute to Skinners' work is to overcome these limitations.     

Maintenance of appropriate behavior in a token program

Following a baseline period, a token reinforcement program was instituted in three resource-room classes for very disruptive children where the children spent 1 hour per day. The only reinforcers used in the token program were those available to any classroom teacher, viz., free time in an activity area. The effects of the token program were evaluated in the three resource-room classes as well as in the homerooms of all students participating in the resource-room program. Following 4 months of the token program, a return to baseline was made in one resource classroom. As assessed by standard classroom observations, the token program was effective in reducing disruptive behavior in all three resource-room classes; and when it was withdrawn in one resource-room class, the disruptive behavior remained at a very low level in the resource room. Ratings by teachers in the homerooms showed a significant reduction in disruptive behavior, but recordings by homeroom observers showed no such reduction. Possible reasons for maintenance of low rates of disruptive behavior after withdrawal of tokens were discussed in terms of the type of reinforcers used.     

Facebook tells me so: applying the theory of planned behavior to understand partner-monitoring behavior on Facebook

The social networking site (SNS) Facebook is becoming increasingly recognized as a medium through which individuals can investigate and monitor others' activities. However, little is known about whether Facebook monitoring behavior occurs within romantic relationships and, accordingly, the psychological predictors of this behavior. The present study employed an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework including self-esteem, partner trust, and demographic characteristics, to predict frequent Facebook partner-monitoring. Facebook users (N=244) in romantic relationships completed measures assessing the standard TPB constructs (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control), additional predictor variables (self-esteem and partner trust), and demographic characteristics (age, gender, relationship length, daily Facebook logins, and time spent per login). One week later, participants reported their level of Facebook partner-monitoring during the previous week. Regression analyses supported the standard TPB constructs of attitude and subjective norm in predicting intentions to engage in frequent Facebook partner-monitoring, with intention, in turn, predicting behavior. Partner trust, but not self-esteem, significantly predicted frequent Facebook partner-monitoring intentions. Of the demographic characteristics, daily Facebook logins significantly predicted both intention and behavior and, unexpectedly, relationship length directly affected behavior. Overall, the current study revealed that frequent Facebook partner-monitoring is influenced by attitudinal, normative, and relational factors and, potentially, increased visits to Facebook. These findings provide a new understanding of an individual's use of the world's leading SNS to monitor their partner's activities and provide a foundation for future studies to investigate the potential negative implications this activity may have for those in romantic relationships.     

The eating behavior of obese and nonobese women

Sixty-one obese, normal weight and thin women were observed for 30 minutes as they consumed a free-choice lunch in a quasi-naturalistic setting. Their behavior was unobtrusively quantified in terms of microbehavior (mouthfulls, chews, drinks and pauses) and of the macrobehavior (type and amount of food consumed and total active eating or drinking time). Information on subject and environmental variables are also reported. Observed behavior was analyzed as comparative group totals and as patterns of behavior over time. Comparison of group totals showed that: (a) there were no differences in types of food or number of calories consumed between the three groups, (b) no differences were found between the eating behavior of the normal weight and the obese and (c) the obese women spent less time actively eating, less time chewing and more time drinking than did the thinnest group. Pattern analysis revealed a decrease in all responses over time but showed no significant pattern difference between groups.     

A randomized trial of individual tutoring for elementary school children with reading and behavior difficulties

Children in Grades K-5, selected for reading and behavior problems, received individual tutoring in a program which aimed to detail a hierarchy of reading skills, locate the point on the hierarchy at which each child should work, and provide enthusiastic social reinforcement for successes. Children were randomly assigned to higher or lower frequency tutoring (one 45-min. session every 1.6 days vs every 8.3 days). The higher frequency group progressed significantly faster in reading than the lower frequency group. Both groups progressed much faster during the time of the intervention than they had before tutoring. Before tutoring, both groups had progressed at about 0.5 grade per year; during tutoring, the higher frequency group progressed at 1.5 grade per year and the lower frequency group at 1.1 grade per year. The subsets of children with verbal ability scores one or two standard deviations below the population mean, as assessed on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, still progressed at average rates of 1.2 grade per year during tutoring. The amount of work students accomplished on a sounding and blending drill predicted reading progress. The intervention cost an average of 1,156 dollars per student per year.     

Human temporal behavior and discrimination-reversal learning

The present study demonstrates that a relationship exists between individual differences in temporal behavior and individual differences in human discrimination-reversal learning behavior. When the results of performance on a time-estimation task employing the method of reproduction are compared with the results of acquisition performance on a complex form of discrimination-reversal learning task is can be demonstrated that underestimation of time is associated with faster learning and overestimation of time is associated with slower learning of the discrimination task. The experimental design was based on the historical fact that the Sechenov-Pavlov and Spence-Hull formulations assigned a primary role in learning to excitation and inhibition as intervening variables between the input of stimulation and output of response. The present study also used the tasks of time estimation and discrimination learning as dependent variables; and the concept that underestimation of time is associated with and underlying predominance of excitatory processes as a hypothetical construct. The conclusion was reached that one of the many theoretical processes which may be used to explain discrimination learning is the concept that acquisition of the correct response may be viewed as a function of the individual rates at which excitatory processes come to be conditioned to a predominance over existing inhibitory processes.     

Feedback in behavior modification: an experimental analysis in two phobic cases

Two illustrations of single-case research are described in which an isolated therapeutic variable was sequentially introduced, withdrawn, and reintroduced while changes in a clinically relevant behavior were measured. A claustrophobic patient and a knife-phobic patient received graduated practice in facing their phobic stimuli; length of time the claustrophobic patient stayed in a small dark room per trial, and length of time the knife-phobic patient kept knife exposed per trial were measured. In both experiments, when feedback of these time scores was withdrawn, ongoing progress was retarded. Reinstatement of feedback led to renewed improvement. In Experiment 2, adding and removing contingent verbal praise against a constant background of precise feedback did not significantly alter rate of progress.     

Production and elimination of disruptive classroom behavior by systematically varying teacher's behavior

The effects of teacher behaviors on the classroom behaviors of children were investigated by systematically varying approving (praise, smiles, contacts, etc.) and disapproving (verbal reprimands, physical restraint, etc.) classes of teacher behavior. Measures were taken on both teacher and child behaviors. Each day a sample of 10 children was observed. The subject pool was a class of 28 well-behaved children in a middle-primary public school class. The results demonstrated that approving teacher responses served a positive reinforcing function in maintaining appropriate classroom behaviors. Disruptive behaviors increased each time approving teacher behavior was withdrawn. When the teacher's disapproving behaviors were tripled, increases appeared most markedly in the gross motor and noise-making categories of disruptive behavior. The findings emphasize again the important role of the teacher in producing, maintaining, and eliminating disruptive as well as pro-social classroom behavior.     

Behaviorism, private events, and the molar view of behavior

Viewing the science of behavior (behavior analysis) to be a natural science, radical behaviorism rejects any form of dualism, including subjective-objective or inner-outer dualism. Yet radical behaviorists often claim that treating private events as covert behavior and internal stimuli is necessary and important to behavior analysis. To the contrary, this paper argues that, compared with the rejection of dualism, private events constitute a trivial idea and are irrelevant to accounts of behavior. Viewed in the framework of evolutionary theory or for any practical purpose, behavior is commerce with the environment. By its very nature, behavior is extended in time. The temptation to posit private events arises when an activity is viewed in too small a time frame, obscuring what the activity does. When activities are viewed in an appropriately extended time frame, private events become irrelevant to the account. This insight provides the answer to many philosophical questions about thinking, sensing, and feeling. Confusion about private events arises in large part from failure to appreciate fully the radical implications of replacing mentalistic ideas about language with the concept of verbal behavior. Like other operant behavior, verbal behavior involves no agent and no hidden causes; like all natural events, it is caused by other natural events. In a science of behavior grounded in evolutionary theory, the same set of principles applies to verbal and nonverbal behavior and to human and nonhuman organisms.     

Evaluating the impact of adaptive signal control technology on driver stress and behavior using real-world experimental data

While the operational and crash reduction benefits of adaptive signal control technology (ASCT) have long been investigated, the impact of this technology on driver behavior and stress is still uncertain. This study evaluated the impact of ASCT on driver behavior and stress in a real-world environment. Participants travelled through two arterial corridors, one equipped with ASCT and the other having traditional time-of-day coordinated signals. Driver stress was measured using a heart rate detector and a perceived stress scale while driver behavior was examined using vehicular trajectory data. Overall, driving behavior improved on the ASCT as compared to the non-ASCT corridor, as indicated by higher speeds and a fewer number of stops on the ASCT corridor relative to the non-ASCT corridor. Repeated measures ANOVA showed a statistically significant reduction in driver heart rate by −10 beats per minute over the ASCT corridor. A similar trend was observed for drivers’ perceived stress, analyzed by Wilcoxon sign ranked test. Driving behavior also showed significant improvement with ASCT presence, and speed was found to be negatively correlated with stress. Furthermore, the participants’ speed was controlled by the two systems i.e. ASCT and non-ASCT as expected. This study provides a significant proof of concept that ASCT can create positive improvements in driver stress and behavior that can be further investigated in the future.     

Assessment and treatment of problem behavior occasioned by interruption of free-operant behavior

The current study describes the assessment and treatment of the problem behavior of 3 individuals with autism for whom initial functional analysis results were inconclusive. Subsequent analyses revealed that the interruption of free-operant behavior using "do" requests (Study 1) as well as "do" and "don't" requests (Study 2) occasioned problem behavior. Initially, treatment involved differential and noncontingent reinforcement without interruption. To make the intervention more sustainable in the natural environment (where interruptions are unavoidable), a two-component multiple-schedule arrangement was used to progressively increase the period of time in which ongoing activities would be interrupted. During generalization sessions, the intervention was applied across a variety of contexts and therapists.     

Individual behavior, culture, and social change

The principle of operant selection is examined as a prototype of cultural selection, and the role of the social environment is suggested as the critical element in the emergence of cultural phenomena. Operant contingencies are compared to cultural selection contingencies, designated as metacontingencies. Both of these types of contingency relations result in evolving lineages of recurrences that can become increasingly complex in the number and organization of their elements. In addition to its role in the recurring interlocking behavioral contingencies that constitute cultural organization, operant behavior plays another role in cultures. Although the operants of individuals are functionally independent of one another, the behavior of each person may contribute to a cumulative effect that is relevant to the well-being of many people. Similarly, the outcomes of metacontingencies may also contribute to a cumulative effect. The relation between independently evolving operant lineages, or between independently evolving cultural lineages, and their cumulative effect is identified as a macrocontingency. Macrocontingencies do not involve cultural-level selection per se. Effective cultural engineering requires identifying the macrocontingencies that produce less than desirable effects and altering the relevant operant contingencies or metacontingencies to produce change in the cumulative effects.     

On the use of the term ‘frequency’ in applied behavior analysis

There exists a terminological problem in applied behavior analysis: the term frequency has been used as a synonym for both rate (the number of responses per time) and count (the number of responses). To guide decisions about the use and meaning of frequency, we surveyed the usage of frequency in contemporary behavior‐analytic journals and textbooks and found that the predominant usage of frequency was as count, not rate. Thus, we encourage behavior analysts to use frequency as a synonym for count.     

Changing behavior with behavioral techniques

The following report describes how a combination of reward and punishment was used to change the behavior of an acting-out third grade student. Punishment was used to suppress the undesirable behavior and a reward system was used to reinforce the new desirable behavior. The subject dropped from an average of .20 times per day in getting out his seat to an average of 0.12 over a five-week period.     

Control of behavior by an establishing stimulus

Seventeen pigeons were exposed to a three-key discrete-trial procedure in which a peck on the lit center key produced food if, and only if, the left keylight was lit. The center key was illuminated by a peck on the lit right key. Of interest was whether subjects pecked the right key before or after the response-independent onset of the left keylight. Pecks on the right key after left-keylight onset suggest control of behavior by the left keylight—an establishing stimulus. In three experiments, the strength of center-keylight onset as conditioned reinforcer for a response on the right key was manipulated by altering the size of the reduction in time to food delivery correlated with its onset. Control of pigeons' key pecks by onset of the left keylight occurred on more trials per session when the center keylight was a relatively weak conditioned reinforcer and on fewer trials per session when the center keylight was a relatively strong condtioned reinforcer. Differences across conditions in the degree of control by onset of the establishing stimulus were greatest when changes in conditioned reinforcer strength occurred relatively frequently and were signaled. The results provide evidence of the function of an establishing stimulus.     

Describing behavior with ratios of count and time

Describing behavior with ratios of count and time is a popular measurement tactic in the field of behavior analysis. The paper examines some count and time ratios in order to determine what about behavior each describes and why one ratio may sometimes be more useful than another. In addition, the paper briefly considers some terminological issues, derived quantities, dimensional analysis, some advantages and disadvantages of ratios, and selection of useful quantities for measurement.     

Assessing Type A behavior in children: a longitudinal exploration of the overlap between Type A behavior and hyperactivity

Child Type A behavior and its relation to hyperactivity were investigated developmentally using a longitudinal normal sample of 91 children (46 boys and 45 girls) between the ages of 4 and 8-9. In light of the overlap found in several studies between Type A behavior, as measured by the Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH) questionnaire, and hyperactivity measured by questionnaires, an attempt was made to measure Type A behavior as distinct from hyperactivity using behavioral observations. The MYTH questionnaire and behavioral observations were used to assess Type A behavior and questionnaire-based measures and behavioral observations were used to assess hyperactivity. Predictions were made regarding individual stability in phenomena and in measures. The results indicated considerable stability in the respective Type A and hyperactivity measures over time, and further, that behavioral observations make it possible to measure Global Type A behavior and Type A Competitiveness as distinct from hyperactivity, although the status of Type A Impatience at early ages is not yet settled. The MYTH and the observed Type A behavior showed differential relations to external criteria, such as achievement measures and problem behavior. This has implications for future measurement and perhaps conceptualization of Type A behavior in children, and thereby also for studying the developmental aspects of Type A behavior.