Contributions of Behavioral Systems Science to Leadership for a New Progressive Movement

We argue in this paper that we are in the midst of a period in which fundamental global change will be required if societies and many species, perhaps even our own, are to survive. The realities are inescapable, and the potential implications are likely to affect nearly every dimension of human life in the USA and globally. Current trends are discouraging and will be extraordinarily difficult to shift, given global structural realities. It is hard to imagine a time when effective leadership is more necessary or will be more challenging. Our thesis here is that behavioral systems science can contribute in meaningful ways to shaping and sustaining such leadership, leadership required to advance a new progressive movement.     

An evaluation of progressively increasing intertrial intervals on the acquisition and generalization of three social skills

We evaluated the effects of different intertrial intervals (ITIs; time between programmed learning opportunities) on the acquisition and generalization of 2 preschoolers' social skills. Independent and generalized skills were observed only when the daily ITI was gradually increased from short to progressively longer intervals.     

Immediate postsession feeding reduces operant responding in rats

Three experiments investigated the effects of immediate and delayed postsession feeding on progressive-ratio and variable-interval schedule performance in rats. During Experiments 1 and 2, immediate postsession feeding decreased the breakpoint, or largest completed ratio, under progressive-ratio schedules. Experiment 3 was conducted to extend the results of the first two experiments to responding maintained by variable-interval schedules with different session lengths (15 and 60 min). Response rates decreased in all 4 subjects when postsession feeding immediately followed a 15-min session and in 3 of 4 subjects when postsession feeding immediately followed a 60-min session. The implications of this research are twofold: (1) The functional context in which within-session reinforcers are embedded extends outside the experimental chamber, and (2) supplemental postsession feedings should be sufficiently delayed from the end of a session to avoid weakening operant behavior in the experimental sessions.     

Semantic interference during object naming in agrammatic and logopenic primary progressive aphasia (PPA)

This study examined the time course of object naming in 21 individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) (8 agrammatic (PPA-G); 13 logopenic (PPA-L)) and healthy age-matched speakers (n = 17) using a semantic interference paradigm with related and unrelated interfering stimuli presented at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of −1000, −500, −100 and 0 ms. Results showed semantic interference (SI) (i.e. significantly slower RTs in related compared to unrelated conditions) for all groups at −500, −100 and 0 ms, indicating timely spreading activation to semantic competitors. However, both PPA groups showed a greater magnitude of SI than normal across SOAs. The PPA-L group and six PPA-G participants also evinced SI at −1000 ms, suggesting an abnormal time course of semantic interference resolution, and concomitant left hemisphere cortical atrophy in brain regions associated with semantic processing. These subtle semantic mapping impairments in non-semantic variants of PPA may contribute to the anomia of these patients.     

Islam,HIV/AIDS and activism: a critical analysis of some themes in Positive Muslims' ‘theology of compassion’

The present article is a critical analysis of the South African organization Positive Muslims' ‘theology of compassion’, put forward by its proponents as a Muslim religious initiative to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS and the stigmatization of those affected by the disease. The article addresses the hermeneutics applied and the results reached in relation to a wider contemporary Muslim religious discourse on HIV/AIDS. It also connects the ‘theology of compassion’ to a broader transnational movement of progressive Islam, of which the ‘theology of compassion’ is a practical, grass-roots application. The main analytical focus, however, is on the way in which certain features in this theology are shaped by basic assumptions on the part of its producers concerning the beliefs, emotions and background knowledge of its main stated consumers: believing Muslims.     

Toward a Theory of Progressive Evolution (Large-Scale Stages of Evolutionary Progress)

Here I discuss the basic elements, major stages, and completion of progressive evolution. The cosmic world of self-realization is based on extensive self-development within a closed contour: temporal counter-transitions of spatial counter-elements (energy bonds and media and, basically, substance structures) form of local worlds within it through evolution of informational structures.

• The organic world of reproduction develops through the open informational path: the initial substance, through energy exchange and metabolism, reproduces similar substance; the latter interacts with the environment and, subsequently, reproduces its like, and so on.

• The animal world of self-regulation builds up a closed informational contour in the environment through the informational input and command output.

• The human world of self-cognition forms the intensive type of development within the internal closed informational contour of cognition. Counter-transitions of ideal images and signs relate to their real prototypes. In the course of cognition, abstractive thinking develops and brings man to the possibility of reflection of the initial world in its integrity (thus, elevates man to the infinite, by Hegel).

     

Comparison of progressive prompt delay with and without instructive feedback

We examined the effectiveness and efficiency of 2 instructional arrangements using progressive prompt delay (PPD) with 3 young children with autism and 1 child with developmental delays. Specifically, we compared PPD with instructive feedback (IF) to PPD without IF in an adapted alternating treatment design. The results suggested that (a) children with autism and developmental delays can learn when PPD is used with IF, (b) IF can be an effective method of instruction for young children with autism and developmental delays, and (c) the combination of PPD and IF can increase the efficiency of instruction. Data collected 8 to 9 weeks after instruction ended showed that participants maintained mastery of 58% to 92% of the acquired behaviors. We discuss these results within the constraints and limitations of the data and recommend areas for future research.     

Preference and reinforcer efficacy of high‐ and low‐tech items: A comparison of item type and duration of access

This study examined the interactions of stimulus type (high‐ vs. low‐tech) and magnitude (duration of access) on preference and reinforcer efficacy. Two preference assessments were conducted to identify highly preferred high‐tech and low‐tech items for each participant. A subsequent assessment examined preference for those items when provided at 30‐s and 600‐s durations. We then evaluated reinforcer efficacy for those same items when provided for a range of durations using progressive‐ratio schedules. Results suggested item type and access duration interacted to influence preference and reinforcer efficacy. Participants preferred high‐tech items at longer durations of access and engaged in more responding when the high‐tech item was provided for long durations, but these patterns were reversed for the low‐tech item. In addition, participants engaged in less responding when the high‐tech item was provided for short durations and when the low‐tech item was provided for long durations.     

Delay discounting as impaired valuation: Delayed rewards in an animal obesity model

Obesity is a major public health problem, which, like many forms of addiction, is associated with an elevated tendency to choose smaller immediate rather than larger delayed rewards, a response pattern often referred to as excessive delay discounting. Although some accounts of delay discounting conceptualize this process as impulsivity (placing the emphasis on overvaluing the smaller immediate reward), others have conceptualized delay discounting as an executive function (placing the emphasis on delayed rewards failing to retain their value). The present experiments used a popular animal model of obesity that has been shown to discount delayed rewards at elevated rates (i.e., obese Zucker rats) to test two predictions that conceptualize delay discounting as executive function. In the first experiment, acquisition of lever pressing with delayed rewards was compared in obese versus lean Zucker rats. Contrary to predictions based on delay discounting as executive function, obese Zucker rats learned to press the lever more quickly than controls. In the second experiment, progressive ratio breakpoints (a measure of reward efficacy) with delayed rewards were compared in obese versus lean Zucker rats. Contrary to the notion that obese rats fail to value delayed rewards, the obese Zucker rats' breakpoints were (at least) as high as those of the lean Zucker rats.     

An evaluation of the value of choice-making opportunities in single-operant arrangements: simple fixed- and progressive-ratio schedules

The current study compared the effects of choice and no-choice reinforcement conditions on the task responding of 3 children with autism across 2 single-operant paradigm reinforcer assessments. The first assessment employed simple fixed-ratio (FR) schedules; the second used progressive-ratio (PR) schedules. The latter assessment identified the differential strength of choice-making conditions in promoting task responding relative to no-choice conditions for 2 participants; no differential findings were obtained during the FR assessment.