Aversive control of self-injurious behavior in a psychotic boy

Two studies are reported which indicate how quickly and effectively chronic self-injurious behavior was controlled in a 9-yr-old blind psychotic boy. In the first study, the self-injurious responses were punished by contingent withdrawal of human physical contact. In the second study, response-contingent electric shock was employed.     

An analysis of contrast effects in multiple schedules

Some phenomena of behavioral contrast in multiple schedules are reviewed, and three accounts of contrast are considered. Rate changes within a constant schedule component (transient contrasts) are distinguished from rate changes across successive schedule cycles (sustained contrasts). Pigeons were exposed to a three-component multiple schedule, in which a stimulus correlated with a constant variable interval schedule of reinforcement was preceded by a stimulus correlated with more frequent variable interval reinforcement, or by an extinction stimulus. If the preceding stimulus was correlated with more frequent reinforcement, the response rate in the constant component was low and increased with time. If the preceding stimulus was correlated with extinction, the rate in the constant component was high and decreased with time. Similar transient contrasts were observed in a two-component multiple schedule with different variable interval schedules in the two components. The transient contrast effects in the three-component schedule were shown to depend on differential reinforcement frequency rather than differential response rate in the preceding component. Such transient contrasts were not sufficient to account for sustained contrast effects observed in these experiments. The relation of these findings to the concepts of excitation and inhibition is discussed.     

Varying temporal placement of an added stimulus in a fixed-interval schedule

One paradigm for exploring stimulus effects on behavior is defined for steady state experiments. The paradigm is illustrated by a 60-sec fixed-interval reinforcement schedule wherein a 6-sec light is introduced into each interval. The temporal relation of this stimulus to the reinforcer is the independent variable that is systematically explored. Two experiments studied this temporal relation under two parametric conditions: (a) when the 6-sec light occurs once in each 60-sec interval, (b) when the 6-sec light occurs twice in each interval, the second time always during the 6 sec immediately preceding the reinforcer. Functions are presented showing the effect of the 6-sec light on responding at all points in the fixed-interval.     

Stimulus factors in aversive controls: conditioned suppression after equal training to two stimuli

Pigeons trained to peck a key for food were periodically presented with tones ending with electrical shock until tone presentation consistently suppressed ongoing pecks. Shock was then discontinued and gradients of stimulus generalization were assessed by presenting tones with frequencies above, below, and at the frequencies of those used to develop conditioned suppression. When the training tones had frequencies at 670 and 1500 cps, resulting gradients were bi-modal with peak suppression at 670 and 1500 cps. Of the other test tones, 1000 cps produced the most suppression. When the training tones had frequencies at 450 and 2250 cps, bi-modal gradients were again obtained with peak suppression to the 450 and 2250 cps tones. Of the other test tones, 1000 cps produced the least suppression. These results support the hypothesis that generalized response tendencies summate.     

A comparison of two psychophysical methods using animals

A discrimination box containing two levers with a light above each was used to train eight rats to press beneath the brighter light for a milk reinforcer. The brighter light was held constant and the comparison light was varied to produce 12 brightness differences. The animals were run under two experimental methods: the block method in which each brightness level comparison was presented for a block of 11 contiguous trials, and the staircase method in which the sequence of brightness comparisons was determined by the correctness of the response on the preceding comparison. The block method produced a smaller differential brightness threshold and a larger change in discrimination performance for stimulus magnitude changes than did the staircase method.     

The use of rats as discriminative stimuli

A FREE OPERANT PROCEDURE WAS USED TO DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT ONE RAT COULD DISCRIMINATE: (1) between the presence and absence of a second rat, and (2) between two other rats of the same species and sex. The subjects were four male Wistar rats. The discriminatory response was a bar press and food was used as reinforcement during training. Although there were wide individual differences in rate of learning, all subjects learned to make both discriminations.     

Fixed ratio and extinction performance of infants in the second year of life

Five 14(1/2)- to 19(1/2)-month-old infants were trained to lever press for snacks on small fixed ratio schedules of reinforcement. Within four to nine sessions, responding under FR 10 was established for four subjects and FR 15 for the other. Each subject's last session revealed behavioral patterns similar to animal and human FR trained subjects-a high and constant ratio rate, mixed with a zero rate following reinforcements. Deviations were mostly in the form of prolonged and variable post-reinforcement pauses. These and other irregularities were probably due to the limited deprivation conditions and improper training procedures in which the ratio (for two subjects) was ascended too early and too quickly. Extinction was instituted during the last session. The degree to which extinction performance matched that of other organisms depended upon how stable and "ratio-like" performance was during conditioning.