Schedules of electric shock presentation in the behavioral control of imprinted ducklings

The behavioral effects of various schedules of electric shock presentation were investigated during and after the imprinting of Peking ducklings to moving stimuli. The behavior of following a moving imprinted stimulus was differentially controlled by a multiple schedule of punishment and avoidance that respectively suppressed and maintained following behavior. Pole-pecking, reinforced by presentations of the imprinted stimulus, was suppressed by response-produced shock (punishment); various schedules of response-independent shock and delayed punishment had an overall minimal effect. The delivery of response-independent shock in the presence of one of two stimuli, both during and after imprinting, resulted in a marked reduction in choice of the stimulus paired with shock. The experiments provide no support for a differentiation of imprinting from learning on the basis of the behavioral effects of aversive stimuli. Instead, as is the case with other organisms, the schedule under which shock is delivered to imprinted ducklings appears to be an important determinant of the temporal patterning of subsequent behavior.     

Contributions of contingencies in modern societies to "privacy" in the behavioral relations of cognition and emotion

The aim of this paper is to examine specific features of modern individualistic societies that contribute to "emotions" and "cognitions" becoming a matter of privacy. Although some behavior analysts identify emotions and cognitions as "private events," we argue with Skinner (1945) that cognitions and emotions are relations among events and that their origin is in public events in the contingencies of reinforcement maintained by other people. Guided by Elias (1939/1996), we suggest that the shift from feudal economies to market economies involved the increasing individualization of society's members. This individualizing process includes the socially maintained contingencies that bring some verbal responses under control of private stimulation and reduce the magnitude of some verbal responses to a covert level. Behavioral relations in which either stimuli or responses (or both) cannot be observed by others set the stage for a concept of "privacy." Changes in societal contingencies that gave rise to individualization and the attribution of privacy to cognitions and emotions are suggested to include the following: (a) increasing frequency of individual consequences that have no apparent or direct relevance to the group; (b) increasing numbers of concurrent contingencies and choice requirements; (c) conflicts between immediate and delayed consequences for the individual; and (d) conflicts between consequences for the individual and for the group.     

Response bias induced in rats by response effects

Two experiments examined whether response choice in rats is affected by the presentation of response-produced stimuli. Rats were first trained to emit two different responses, with each response producing a unique auditory stimulus. Subsequently, the former response-produced stimuli were presented while the two response options were freely available. Presentation of a former response-produced stimulus caused the rats to choose more frequently the response option that had previously produced that specific stimulus over the other response option. However, although statistically significant, this response-biasing effect was numerically weak and was only apparent when the stimuli no longer had a general response-activating effect. Moreover, in the case of relatively short presentations of the stimuli, the response-biasing effect was only present if, during testing, the responses continued to produce the auditory stimuli according to the response-effect mapping used during training. These results were discussed in terms of possible underlying associations and were contrasted with previous results from analogous human studies on action control by response-produced stimuli.     

Response bias induced in rats by response effects

Two experiments examined whether response choice in rats is affected by the presentation of response-produced stimuli. Rats were first trained to emit two different responses, with each response producing a unique auditory stimulus. Subsequently, the former response-produced stimuli were presented while the two response options were freely available. Presentation of a former response-produced stimulus caused the rats to choose more frequently the response option that had previously produced that specific stimulus over the other response option. However, although statistically significant, this response-biasing effect was numerically weak and was only apparent when the stimuli no longer had a general response-activating effect. Moreover, in the case of relatively short presentations of the stimuli, the response-biasing effect was only present if, during testing, the responses continued to produce the auditory stimuli according to the response-effect mapping used during training. These results were discussed in terms of possible underlying associations and were contrasted with previous results from analogous human studies on action control by response-produced stimuli.     

Neural events in the reinforcement contingency

When neural events are analyzed as stimuli and responses, functional relations among them and among overt stimuli and responses can be unveiled. The integration of neuroscience and the experimental analysis of behavior is beginning to provide empirical evidence of involvement of neural events in the three-term contingency relating discriminative stimuli, responses, and consequences. This paper is aimed at highlighting exemplar instances in the development of this issue. It has long been known that the electrical stimulation of certain cerebral areas can have a reinforcing function. Extraordinary technological advances in recent years show that neural activity can be selected by consequences. For example, the activity of in vitro isolated neurons that receive dopamine as a reinforcer functions as a cellular analogue of operant conditioning. The in vivo activity of populations of neurons of rats and monkeys can be recorded on an instant-to-instant basis and can then be used to move mechanical arms or track a target as a function of consequences. Neural stimulation acts as a discriminative stimulus for operant responses that are in turn maintained by neural consequences. Together with investigations on the molecular basis of classical conditioning, those studies are examples of possibilities that are being created for the study of behavior-environment interactions within the organism. More important, they show that, as an element in the three-term contingency, neural activity follows the same laws as other events.     

Stimulus change as a factor in response maintenance with free food available.

Rats bar pressed for food on a reinforcement schedule in which every response was reinforced, even though a dish of pellets was present. Initially, auditory and visual stimuli accompanied response-produced food presentation. With stimulus feedback as an added consequence of bar pressing, responding was maintained in the presence of free food; without stimulus feedback, responding decreased to a low level. Auditory feedback maintained slightly more responding than did visual feedback, and both together maintained more responding than did either separately. Almost no responding occurred when the only consequence of bar pressing was stimulus feedback. The data indicated conditioned and sensory reinforcement effects of response-produced stimulus feedback.     

The effects of “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” reinforcement contingencies on task behavior

In spite of a substantial number of observations to the contrary, some behavioral scientists have concluded that salient extrinsic reinforcers not only do not maintain or support task behavior, they decrease or extinguish it by somehow destroying or impairing “intrinsic motivation.” In this study it was once again demonstrated that when behavior is sustained in a task setting in the apparent absence of salient extrinsic reinforcers, quite subtle but nevertheless palpable response-produced stimulus changes are found to be involved. Moreover, when a signaled extrinsic monetary reinforcement contingency was applied, it not only did not impair the effects of the intrinsic reinforcers, it produced a significant increase in task performance during the time the extrinsic reinforcement contingency prevailed, and it did not produce a decrement in self-reports of task attractiveness nor in performance during a discretionary period in which the contingency had been deliberately withdrawn. We conclude that there is little reason to believe that the design and implementation of effective extrinsic reinforcement contingencies will destroy one's pride in one's work, the intrinsic worth or meaningfulness of the job, or one's “intrinsic motivation” to perform it.     

An evaluation of the overjustification effect across multiple contingency arrangements

The overjustification effect suggests that external rewards may decrease intrinsically reinforced behaviors; however, this conclusion is often drawn from pre‐ and post‐assessment data. The majority of studies published in this area do not take repeated measures of behavior. In addition, previous research has not distinguished between the use of rewards and reinforcers by demonstrating a reinforcement effect; hence, it is possible that the occurrence of the overjustification effect varies depending on the nature of the stimuli that are used. This study extended previous research by evaluating whether the overjustification effect was relevant to the use of non‐reinforcing stimuli, reinforcers, or both. The effects of verbal praise were also evaluated in relation to the overjustification effect. Results indicated that behavior did not decrease below baseline levels following the contingent delivery of non‐reinforcing stimuli, reinforcers, or verbal praise. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sensory Integration as a Treatment for Automatically Maintained Stereotypy

According to sensory integration (SI) theory, many symptoms of autism are caused by an inability to integrate and adaptively respond to sensory input. Despite little evidence supporting SI, this form of therapy is a popular treatment for children with autism. Should these treatments work, they should be most effective for behavior maintained by sensory consequences (automatically maintained). SI activities may make these sensory consequences less reinforcing. The purpose of this study was to determine whether SI treatments could reduce automatically‐maintained stereotypy. Five individuals with autism participated. An occupational therapist prescribed sensory activities that competed with stereotypy for SI treatments. Two types of SI treatments were tested: sensory diets and brushing with deep‐pressure therapy. The effect of these treatments on stereotypy was evaluated in an ABAB design. Neither the sensory diet alone, brushing and deep pressure alone, nor both treatments combined were effective interventions for stereotypy. These results do not support the use of SI as a treatment for stereotypy. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Discrimination based on response-produced stimuli

This study outlines a simplified operant conditioning procedure for investigating discrimination based on response-produced stimuli. The method, using concurrent schedules of reinforcement, greatly reduced the complexity of the procedures and the number of training sessions necessitated by a recently offered alternative technique. Calculations of Weber’s Constant for discrimination between response-produced stimuli are presented and the relevance for learning theory of empirical studies concerning response-produced stimuli is indicated.     

Behavior simultaneously maintained by both presentation and termination of noxious stimuli

Lever pressing by two squirrel monkeys was maintained under a 3-minute variable-interval schedule of response-produced electric-shock presentation. At the same time, responding on a second lever was maintained under a 3-minute fixed-interval schedule of termination of the shock-presentation schedule and shock-correlated stimuli. Under the termination schedule, the first response after a 3-minute period produced a 1-minute timeout, during which no events occurred and responding had no scheduled consequence. Relatively high and constant rates of responding were maintained on the lever where responding produced shock. Lower rates and positively accelerated patterns of responding occurred on the lever where responding terminated the shock schedule. Thus, responding was simultaneously maintained by presentation of an event and by termination of a stimulus associated with that event. Rates and patterns of responding on each lever were reversed when the schedules arranged on each lever were reversed on two occasions. When shock intensity was increased from 0 to 10 mA, responding maintained both by presentation of shock and by termination of the shock schedule increased, but responding maintained by shock presentation increased to a greater extent. Positive and negative reinforcement, usually regarded as separate behavioral processes involving different events, can coexist when behavior is controlled by different contingencies involving the same event.     

Why do we think? Consequences of regarding thinking as behavior

Cognitive psychologists have made significant progress in explaining how people think. However, relatively little time and energy have been invested in understanding why we think--the factors that make us start or stop thinking, choose and change strategies and solutions. Such questions are linked to motivation and to discriminative and reinforcing stimuli. In this article, the idea that studying thinking as a form of behavior closely connected to antecedent stimuli and consequences leads to potentially important questions that are not presently being studied in the field of cognitive psychology. This is not an argument for reverting to behaviorism--rather, the argument is made that integrating a behavioral perspective on thinking would enrich cognitive psychology.     

Maintenance and suppression of responding under schedules of electric shock presentation

In squirrel monkeys previously trained under a continuous avoidance schedule, characteristic patterns of responding were maintained under a 3-min variable-interval schedule of shock presentation (response-produced shock). Responding in the presence of a periodically presented stimulus, the termination of which coincided with the delivery of a response-independent electric shock (Estes-Skinner procedure), was not reliably affected. When shocks followed every response during certain signalled portions of the session, and were presented under the variable-interval schedule during the rest of the session (multiple 1-response fixed-ratio, 3-min variable-interval schedule of shock presentation), responding was suppressed during the fixed-ratio component and maintained during the variable-interval component. Environmental consequences do not have immutable properties, and may either support or suppress behavior, depending on the schedule of presentation.     

Effects of response-produced stimuli upon conditional discrimination performance

In zero-delay matching procedures the performance of three groups of pigeons was examined when exteroceptive stimuli, response-produced stimuli associated with the completion of either of two fixed ratios, or a compound of exteroceptive and response-produced stimuli were available as samples. Exteroceptive samples were found to control a higher level of matching accuracy than response-produced samples, while compound samples controlled a higher level of accuracy than did exteroceptive samples alone. When all subjects were placed on a transfer procedure, during which the previously used red and green samples were replaced by horizontal and vertical lines, the availability of sample-specific fixed-ratios facilitated acquisition of the task.     

Function-altering effects of contingency-specifying stimuli

Contingengy-specifying stimuli (CSSs) can function differently than discriminative stimuli. Rather than evoking behavior due to a history of discrimination training, they alter the function of other stimuli and, therefore, the behavioral relations involving those stimuli. CSSs can alter the evocative function of discriminative stimuli, establishing operations, and conditional stimuli, as well as the efficacy of reinforcing and punishing stimuli and of stimuli that can function in second-order respondent conditioning. The concept of function-altering CSSs has implications for such areas of interest as stimulus equivalence, the terminology involving "rules" and "rule-governed behavior," and the way in which behavior analysts view the effects of such basic processes as reinforcement and punishment.     

The delay-reduction hypothesis of conditioned reinforcement and punishment: Observing behavior

Pigeons responded in an observing-response procedure in which three fixed-interval components alternated. Pecking one response key produced food reinforcement according to a mixed schedule. Pecking the second (observing) key occasionally replaced the mixed-schedule stimulus with the stimulus correlated with the fixed-interval component then in effect. In Experiment 1, observing was best maintained by stimuli correlated with a reduction in mean time to reinforcement. That finding was consistent with the conditioned-reinforcement hypothesis of observing behavior. However, low rates of observing were also maintained by stimuli not representing delay reduction. Experiment 2 assessed the role of sensory reinforcement. It showed that response rate was higher when maintained by stimuli uncorrelated with reinforcement delay than when the stimuli were correlated with a delay increase. This latter result supports a symmetrical version of the conditioned-reinforcement hypothesis that requires suppression by stimuli correlated with an increase in time to reinforcement. The results were inconsistent with hypotheses stressing the reinforcing potency of uncertainty reduction.     

Exploring the reinforcement of compliance with "do" and "don't" requests and the side effects: a partial replication and extension

The side effects of reinforcing compliance to "do" and "don't" requests were examined in this study. The study was designed to do two things: (1) further establish that "do" and "don't" requests are functionally distinct and (2) determine which "don't" requests will show the same ability as "do" requests in effecting a change in topographically different inappropriate behaviors. Three children (2 boys and 1 girl), ages 5 yr. 2 mo. to 6 yr. 7 mo., participated. The design of the study was ABAC counterbalanced across subjects. With all three children reinforcement of "do" requests led to increased compliance with "do" requests without concurrent increase in compliance to "don't" requests. Also, reinforcing compliance to "don't" requests resulted in increased compliance to "don't" requests without concurrent increase in compliance to "do" requests. An undesirable side effect to the treatment was also noted. Two children showed a tendency to increase their rates of inappropriate behavior concurrent with increases in compliance to "don't" requests. Probable causes for this effect and concerns about the reinforcement of "don't" requests were discussed.     

COMBINING NONCONTINGENT REINFORCEMENT AND DIFFERENTIAL REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES AS TREATMENT FOR ABERRANT BEHAVIOR

Research has shown that noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) can be an effective behavior-reduction procedure when based on a functional analysis. The effects of NCR may be a result of elimination of the contingency between aberrant behavior and reinforcing consequences (extinction) or frequent and free access to reinforcers that may reduce the participant's motivation to engage in aberrant behaviors or mands. If motivation is momentarily reduced, behavior such as mands may not be sensitive to positive reinforcement. In this study, for 3 children with aberrant behavior maintained by tangible positive reinforcement, differential-reinforcement-of-alternative-behavior schedules were superimposed on NCR schedules to determine if mands could be strengthened. Results for the participants indicated that NCR did not preclude reinforcement of mands.     

Assessing reinforcers under progressive schedule requirements.

Recent research findings suggest that reinforcing stimuli may be differentially effective as response requirements increase. We extended this line of research by evaluating responding under increasing schedule requirements via progressive‐ratio schedules and behavioral economic analyses. The differential effectiveness of preferred stimuli in treating destructive behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement also was examined. Results showed that one of two stimuli was associated with more responding under increasing schedule requirements for the 4 participants. Furthermore, stimuli associated with more responding under increasing schedule requirements generally were more effective in treating destructive behavior than stimuli associated with less responding. These data suggest that progressive‐ratio schedules and behavioral economic analyses may be useful for developing a new technology for reinforcer identification. From a clinical perspective, these results suggest that two reinforcers may be similarly effective for low‐effort tasks and differentially effective for high‐effort tasks.