A cognitive behaviorist approach to the study of animal behavior

Traditional psychological approaches to animal learning and behavior have involved either the atheoretical behaviorist approach proposed by B. F. Skinner (1938), in which input-output relations are described in response to environmental manipulations, or the theoretical behaviorist approach offered by C. L Hull (1943), in which associations mediated by several hypothetical constructs and intervening variables are formed between stimuli and responses. Recently, the application of a cognitive behaviorist approach to animal learning and behavior has been found to have considerable value as a research tool. This perspective has grown out of E. C. Tolman's cognitive approach to learning in which behavior is mediated by mechanisms that are not directly observable but can be inferred from the results of critical experiments. In the present article, the author presents several examples of the successful application of the cognitive behaviorist approach. In each case, the experiments have been designed to distinguish between more traditional mechanisms and those mediated by hypothesized internal representations. These examples were selected because the evidence suggests that some form of active cognitive organization is needed to account for the behavioral results.     

Neurocognitive elements of antisocial behavior: Relevance of an orbitofrontal cortex account

This paper reviews the role of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) lesions in antisocial behaviors and the adequacy of a strict OFC account of antisocial disorders where there is no evidence of lesion. Neurocognitive accounts of antisocial behaviors are extended beyond the OFC. Several methodological shortcomings specific to this neuroscience approach to antisocial behavior are identified. A developmental approach is advocated to chart the developmental sequences of impaired brain development and of the various comorbid states typically seen in antisocial disorders.     

Radical interpretation and the permutation principle

Davidson has claimed that to conclude that reference is inscrutable, one must assume that If some theory of truth ... is satisfactory in the light of all relevant evidence ... then any theory that is generated from the first theory by a permutation will also be satisfactory in the light of all relevant evidence. However, given that theories of truth are not directly read off the world, but rather serve as parts of larger theories of behavior, this assumption is far from self-evident. A proper understanding of the role truth theories play in theories of interpretation makes the inscrutability of reference much less wide-spread than Davidson suggests, and, as a result, the radical interpretation methodology is much less likely to saddle its defenders with counterintuitive cases of indeterminacy than is commonly supposed.     

Achievement behavior: A situational interpretation

A situational interpretation of achievement behavior is proposed. This interpretation assumes that the reward contingencies of the immediate situation determine whether performance will be high or low. The results of four experiments supported the prediction that women and men will improve their performance if high achievement is associated with external rewards and will only decrease their performance when low achievement is associated with external rewards. In four additional experiments it was shown that both women and men will describe themselves as high in intellectual ability or as low in ability as a direct function of external rewards contingencies. The differences between situational and personality interpretations of achievement behavior are discussed, as well as the viability of the concept of fear of success and internalized sex roles as explanatory constructs.     

Promoting the symbolic interpretation of scripture among year 7 pupils: evaluating an educational programme by the Loman index of biblical interpretation

Recent research has drawn attention to the way in which during the years of secondary schooling pupils move away from the literal acceptance of biblical narratives to the rejection of these narratives. The Loman Accelerated Symbolic Thinking programme is designed to offer pupils the third option of accepting a symbolic interpretation of biblical narratives. The effectiveness of the programme is assessed among 93 year 7 pupils compared with a control group of 51 pupils. The data demonstrate that the experimental group of pupils increased in their ability to think symbolically about biblical narratives.     

Generating and evaluating options for decision making: the impact of sequentially presented evidence

We examined how decision makers generate and evaluate hypotheses when data are presented sequentially. In the first 2 experiments, participants learned the relationship between data and possible causes of the data in a virtual environment. Data were then presented iteratively, and participants either generated hypotheses they thought caused the data or rated the probability of possible causes of the data. In a 3rd experiment, participants generated hypotheses and made probability judgments on the basis of previously stored general knowledge. Findings suggest that both the hypotheses one generates and the judged probability of those hypotheses are heavily influenced by the most recent evidence observed and by the diagnosticity of the evidence. Specifically, participants generated a narrow set of possible explanations when the presented evidence was diagnostic compared with when it was nondiagnostic, suggesting that nondiagnostic evidence entices participants to cast a wider net when generating hypotheses.     

Finger-number interaction: an ideomotor account

Recent findings have shown that processing numerical magnitude may interact with finger movements through goal-directed movements. Here we tested these number-finger interactions in a response-effect (R-E) paradigm. During a learning phase, participants read meaningless consonant-vowel (CV) syllables immediately followed by unrelated opening or closing finger movements; during a transfer test, they again named these CV syllables in response to processing a small or a large number. The results showed that responding to a large magnitude number during the transfer phase was slower in an incompatible situation, that is, when the answer was the CV syllable that had been associated to a grip closure during the learning phase. This interference effect demonstrates that ideomotor principles can account for the link between the meaning of numbers and the perception of actions through an anticipated-magnitude code.     

Effect of subliminal stimuli on consumer behavior: negative evidence.

The study corrected methodological weaknesses found in previous experiments designed to test the contentions of motivational research theorists that subliminal stimulation can affect buying behavior. The words "Hershey's Chocolate" were presented to a group of 18 experimental Ss below a forced-choice detection threshold. The 19 control Ss had a blank slide superimposed over the same background media. In a highly controlled buying situation neither experimental nor control Ss purchased Hershey's products, but on comparable chocolate products, the experimental Ss bought 5 and the control Ss, 3. A second study tested 15 experimental and 12 control Ss with the stimulus presented just below a recognition threshold. No experimental Ss bought Hershey's; two control Ss did. No support was found for the claims of motivational research theorists.     

A theory of behavior interaction in dyads: A structuralist account

A theory from the behavioral and social sciences is presented from the structuralist point of view. A more comprehensive theory-net is outlined, some basic terms and core assumptions are formulated, and an expansion of the theory towards two intended applications is given. Finally, some results of a first empirical test of the theory are reported. The aim of the paper is to show that the structuralist account of scientific theories is not confined to mathematical theories from the natural sciences, but can also be applied to relatively informal constructions of the behavioral and social sciences.     

A general account of selection: biology, immunology, and behavior.

Authors frequently refer to gene-based selection in biological evolution, the reaction of the immune system to antigens, and operant learning as exemplifying selection processes in the same sense of this term. However, as obvious as this claim may seem on the surface, setting out an account of "selection" that is general enough to incorporate all three of these processes without becoming so general as to be vacuous is far from easy. In this target article, we set out such a general account of selection to see how well it accommodates these very different sorts of selection. The three fundamental elements of this account are replication, variation, and environmental interaction. For selection to occur, these three processes must be related in a very specific way. In particular, replication must alternate with environmental interaction so that any changes that occur in replication are passed on differentially because of environmental interaction. One of the main differences among the three sorts of selection that we investigate concerns the role of organisms. In traditional biological evolution, organisms play a central role with respect to environmental interaction. Although environmental interaction can occur at other levels of the organizational hierarchy, organisms are the primary focus of environmental interaction. In the functioning of the immune system, organisms function as containers. The interactions that result in selection of antibodies during a lifetime are between entities (antibodies and antigens) contained within the organism. Resulting changes in the immune system of one organism are not passed on to later organisms. Nor are changes in operant behavior resulting from behavioral selection passed on to later organisms. But operant behavior is not contained in the organism because most of the interactions that lead to differential replication include parts of the world outside the organism. Changes in the organism's nervous system are the effects of those interactions. The role of genes also varies in these three systems. Biological evolution is gene-based (i.e., genes are the primary replicators). Genes play very different roles in operant behavior and the immune system. However, in all three systems, iteration is central. All three selection processes are also incredibly wasteful and inefficient. They can generate complexity and novelty primarily because they are so wasteful and inefficient.     

Facial expression of pain: an evolutionary account

This paper proposes that human expression of pain in the presence or absence of caregivers, and the detection of pain by observers, arises from evolved propensities. The function of pain is to demand attention and prioritise escape, recovery, and healing; where others can help achieve these goals, effective communication of pain is required. Evidence is reviewed of a distinct and specific facial expression of pain from infancy to old age, consistent across stimuli, and recognizable as pain by observers. Voluntary control over amplitude is incomplete, and observers can better detect pain that the individual attempts to suppress rather than amplify or simulate. In many clinical and experimental settings, the facial expression of pain is incorporated with verbal and nonverbal vocal activity, posture, and movement in an overall category of pain behaviour. This is assumed by clinicians to be under operant control of social contingencies such as sympathy, caregiving, and practical help; thus, strong facial expression is presumed to constitute and attempt to manipulate these contingencies by amplification of the normal expression. Operant formulations support skepticism about the presence or extent of pain, judgments of malingering, and sometimes the withholding of caregiving and help. To the extent that pain expression is influenced by environmental contingencies, however, "amplification" could equally plausibly constitute the release of suppression according to evolved contingent propensities that guide behaviour. Pain has been largely neglected in the evolutionary literature and the literature on expression of emotion, but an evolutionary account can generate improved assessment of pain and reactions to it.     

Part-set cueing and lexical decisions: Testing an inhibitory account

Providing some elements of a studied set during testing (part-set cues) can impair memory for the remaining elements (noncues)—a counterintuitive effect that has recently been attributed to inhibition of noncues. To test for such inhibition using a lexical decision task, we manipulated semantic and episodic relationships, such that cues and noncues were related only semantically, only episodically, or both semantically and episodically. Results showed that part-set cueing evoked inhibition, slowing lexical decisions for noncues that were related to cues both semantically and episodically, consistent with previous results involving the retrieval practice paradigm. However, either type of relationship alone was insufficient to slow decisions, despite previous evidence of impaired memory in similar conditions when tested with other measures such as free recall. The latter results raise questions regarding the extent to which inhibition can account for cueing-induced impairment when cues and noncues are related only semantically or only episodically.