Running-wheel activity and avoidance in the mongolian gerbil

In the first of two experiments, running-wheel activity and unsignaled (Sidman) avoidance were studied in gerbils and albino rats. All gerbils ran at higher rates than any of the four rats studied. Under the avoidance procedure, four rats developed effective responding; the other two performed much less successfully. While avoidance developed more slowly in the gerbils, all showed asymptotic performance as effective as the four superior rats. The rats showed a consistent warm-up effect, receiving 60% to 80% of the total shocks in the initial third of the session. The gerbils displayed no warm-up, with shocks being evenly distributed over the session. Warm-up in the rats was not related to either response rate or to how effectively the animal was avoiding. When shock was removed, extinction occurred more rapidly in the rats than the gerbils. In the second experiment, which involved two-way shuttle avoidance, gerbils and albino mice quickly acquired the response. All animals met a criterion of 90% avoidance over 80 trials.     

Continuous punishment of free-operant avoidance in the rat

Three groups of albino rats were trained under a free-operant avoidance (Sidman) procedure with equal shock-shock and response-shock intervals. After stable performance was achieved, the animals were concurrently exposed to a brief electric shock after each response. The procedures were as follows: Punishment Schedule I: punishment shock was introduced at an intensity approximately one quarter that of avoidance shock; increments of nearly this same size were made as stable performance was achieved at succeeding punishment shock intensities. Punishment Schedule II: punishment shock was introduced at approximately one-half the intensity of avoidance shock; after stable performance, punishment shock was increased to the same intensity as avoidance shock. Punishment Schedule III: punishment shock was introduced and maintained at the same intensity as avoidance shock. Punishment was continued for all groups until one of two suppression criteria was attained. All animals made fewer responses and received more avoidance shocks as a function of increasing punishment shock. Half of the animals under Punishment Schedule I required punishment shock higher than avoidance shock to meet their assigned suppression criterion. A comparison of all procedures showed that suppression was greater when punishment shock was initially at high intensity.     

Some effects of punishment shock intensity upon discriminative responding

Three pigeons received visual discrimination training under both multiple variable-ratio extinction and variable-interval extinction schedules. All birds developed nearly perfect discrimination. When punishment for every tenth response during food reinforcement was presented, responding decreased as shock intensity increased. At the same time, responding during extinction, which was not punished, increased at intermediate punishment intensities, but returned to low levels under severe punishment. A second procedure, in which punishment and no-punishment sessions alternated unsystematically, was employed with two of the birds. The results under this procedure essentially replicated the data obtained as punishment shock intensity increased gradually.     

ON THE INABILITY OF INTERVAL TIME SAMPLING TO REFLECT FREQUENCY OF OCCURRENCE DATA1

Interval time sampling yields the result, percentage of intervals scored. It is rudimentary to note that this measure per se does not constitute a response dimension. It is a useful behavioral measure, therefore, only to the extent that it accurately reflects the nature and degree of the fundamental dimensions from which it is drawn i.e., frequency and duration. The correspondence between scored intervals and response duration is fairly well understood (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1975, 8 , 463–469; 1977, 10 , 325–332). This study determined the correspondence between scored intervals and response frequency. Eleven, 30-minute experimental sessions that differed along the variables of frequency of occurrence and time per response (the average length of a response per session) were computer simulated. In the first group of four sessions, the frequencies were 45, 100, 150, and 300; in these sessions, all responses ranged from one to three seconds. In the second group of four sessions, the frequencies were 31, 61, 101, and 152; in these sessions, all responses ranged from three to nine seconds. In the last group of three sessions, the frequencies were 25, 34, and 50; here, all responses ranged from nine to 27 seconds. The response distribution within the above ranges was rectangular, with each whole second represented once. The responses were selected by a random number generator, and on each trial every number in the distribution had an equal probability of occurrence. These provisions produced a linear pattern of responding. The time per response in the three groups of sessions were 2, 6, and 18 seconds. For all sessions, event recordings were made and analyzed. The analysis consisted of using partial interval time sampling to determine the percentage of intervals scored; this total was subdivided into intervals containing (1) single responses, (2) multiple responses, (3) continuing responses, and (4) response initiations or terminations. The analysis was performed when the length of the observation interval was 5, 10, 20, 30, 60, and 120 seconds. An additional session drawn from a study that contained real-life data was subjected to this same analysis. The most significant results were derived by finding the ratio of scored intervals containing single responses to the total intervals scored. If every scored interval contained a single response, this ratio would equal 1.0; if no scored interval contained a single response, the ratio would be 0.0. It can be seen that this ratio is an objective expression of the validity of interval time sampling as a measure of response frequency. Of 66 data points (11 sessions × six observation lengths per session), only five were equal to or greater than 0.80. These five points were all found in just two sessions (f = 45, 100). A validity index of less than 0.50 was observed in 49 of the 66 points. Also, the validity index increased, peaked, and then decreased within sessions as the length of the observation interval was increased. The results from the real-life session were in close agreement with those obtained from the simulations. The importance of these and previous findings lies in the demonstration that changes in scored intervals need not represent true behavior change. The data indicate that there are many combinations of behavioral frequency and duration where interval time sampling cannot produce valid measurement results.     

A proposed index of the conformity of one sociometric measurement to another

An index is proposed to measure the extent of agreement of the data of a sociometric test with another test made at an earlier time or on another test criterion. The index is used to define an index of concordancebetween the two tests. It is shown how the index may be used for either individuals or groups. Tests of the hypothesis that agreement is random are given for all cases and applied to an example.Work done under the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research.     

Increasing engagement in a home for the elderly by providing an indoor gardening activity.

This project investigated the effect of a new recreational activity on the generally low level of engagement of residents in two lounges of a Local Authority home for the elderly physically frail. Indoor gardening sessions open to all residents were held on one afternoon each week in the dining room of the home. In the setting-up phase a researcher ran the gardening sessions, developed a set of written instructions on how to organize the activity and used these. plus performance feedback, to train a volunteer to run the sessions. The experimental phase evaluated the residents' level of engagement during the weekly gardening sessions and on another afternoon each week when there were no planned recreational activities. The results show that indoor gardening was very successful in producing sustained activity by the residents attending and that engagement of the residents was significantly higher on gardening than on non-gardening days.     

The melancholy marriage: Depression in marriage and psychosocial approaches to therapy :

The effect of suggestive questions on 3- to 5-year-old and 6- to 8-year-old children's recall of the final occurrence of a repeated event was examined. The event included fixed (identical) items as well as variable items where a new instantiation represented the item in each occurrence of the series. Relative to reports of children who participated in a single occurrence, children's reports about fixed items of the repeated event were more accurate and less contaminated by false suggestions. For variable items, repeated experience led to a decline in memory of the specific occurrence; however, there was no increase in susceptibility to suggestions about details that had not occurred. Most errors after repeated experience were intrusions of details from nontarget occurrences. Although younger children and children who were interviewed a while after the event were more suggestible, respectively, than older children and those interviewed soon after the event, repeated experience attenuated these effects.     

The effects of repeated experience on children's suggestibility

The effect of suggestive questions on 3- to 5-year-old and 6- to 8-year-old children's recall of the final occurrence of a repeated event was examined. The event included fixed (identical) items as well as variable items where a new instantiation represented the item in each occurrence of the series. Relative to reports of children who participated in a single occurrence, children's reports about fixed items of the repeated event were more accurate and less contaminated by false suggestions. For variable items, repeated experience led to a decline in memory of the specific occurrence; however, there was no increase in susceptibility to suggestions about details that had not occurred. Most errors after repeated experience were intrusions of details from nontarget occurrences. Although younger children and children who were interviewed a while after the event were more suggestible, respectively, than older children and those interviewed soon after the event, repeated experience attenuated these effects.