Concurrent random-interval schedules and the matching law

In Experiment I, a group of eight pigeons performed on concurrent random-interval schedules constructed by holding probability equal and varying cycle time to produce ratios of reinforcer densities of 1:1, 3:1, and 5:1 for key pecking. Schedules for a second group of seven were constructed with equal cycle times and unequal probabilities. Both groups deviated from simple matching, but the two forms of the schedules appeared to produce no consistent patterns of deviation. The data were found to be consistent with those obtained in concurrent variable-interval situations. The parameters of the matching equation in the form of Y=k X^a were estimated; the value of k was unity and a was 0.84. In Experiment II, six pigeons were exposed to two conc RI RI schedules in which one component increasingly approximated an FI schedule. The value of k was not 1.0. Concurrent RI RI schedules were shown to represent a continuum from conc FI VI to conc VI VI schedules. The use of the exponential equation in testing “matching laws” suggests that a<1 will continue to be observed, and this will set limits on the form of new laws and the assumed or rational values of the component variables in these laws.     

Matching in concurrent variable-interval avoidance schedules

After pretraining with multiple variable-interval avoidance schedules, two rats were exposed to a series of concurrent variable-interval avoidance schedules. Responses on two levers cancelled delivery of electric shocks arranged according to two independent variable-interval schedules. The ratio of responses and time spent on the two levers approximately matched the ratio of shocks avoided on each. Matching to the number of shocks received was not obtained. Concurrent variable-interval avoidance can therefore be added to the group of positive and negative reinforcement schedules that can be expressed in the quantitative framework of the matching law.     

Multiple schedule component duration: a reanalysis of Shimp and Wheatley (1971) and Todorov (1972)

The tendency for relative response rate to approach matching as multiple schedule component duration decreases has been interpreted as confirming a prediction of Herrnstein's multiple schedule equation. However, the equation predicts that absolute response rate will decrease in both multiple schedule components as component duration decreases. The absolute response-rate data of two studies of component duration do not support this prediction; absolute rate either increased or remained relatively constant.     

“第十一届两岸心理学家学术研讨会”会议纪要

正2019年10月26至27日由南京大学社会学院主办,南京大学社会学院心理学系承办,中国社会心理学会、江苏省社会心理学学会、江苏省心理学会、南京大学社会学院社会心理学研究所共同协办的第十一届两岸心理学家学术研讨会在南京大学成功举办。来自中国大陆、香港、台湾的学者和学生,以及加拿大、新加坡等地区的华人心理学家260余人出席会议。自1995年起,华人心理学家学术研讨会在台湾中研院、台湾大学、中国科学院、香港中文大学、苏州大学、北京师范     

The landscapes of minus. Hatred,adolescence and the paradoxes of growth

This paper explores Bion’s theory of links, L, H, K (Love, Hate and Knowledge) and their minus counterparts, -L, -H, -K, which are not conceivable as simply opposite to or as a lack of L, H, K. Rather, they correspond to a way of experiencing Love, Hatred and Knowledge in terms of absoluteness, and in terms of a radical impossibility of acknowledging loss, relativeness and absence. The theory of links is also examined in its evolution towards the conceptualization of three types of container/contained configurations (commensal, symbiotic and parasitic). These Bionian models are compared and referred to the way Jung articulates the coexistence of ‘good’ and ‘evil’, and the paradoxical nature of mental functioning in relation to the individuation process. The images taken from the Rosarium Philosophorum, particularly the Fons Mercurialis, examined by Jung in ‘The psychology of the transference’ (1946), are explored in the paper. Theory is examined with a particular focus on the adolescent mind and its dramatic phenomenology. Two excerpts taken from the analytic work with a mid-adolescent female patient and a late-adolescent male patient are presented to describe minus-Hate as a form of absolute love, and minus-Love as a form of absolute hatred.     

Pharmacological manipulations of brain catecholamines and the aggressive behavior induced by marihuana in REM-sleep-deprived rats

A marihuana extract, apomorphine, and amphetamine provoked in rats previously deprived of REM sleep for 96 hr an upright position with the animals pawing each other as in fighting. Nondeprived rats injected with the drugs did not show this aggressive behavior. The marihuana-treated animals also bit vigorously a rod introduced into the cage, a fact not observed with the apomorphine-treated rats. These data suggest that the marihuana aggressiveness could at least partially be mediated through the brain catecholamines. Haloperidol, chlorpromazine, α-methyl-p-tyrosine, and reserpine decreased the marihuana aggressiveness of the deprived rats. Increase of dopamine concentration by previous treatment with Dopa potentiated aggressiveness. Blockade of norepinephrine synthesis by FLA-63 was ineffective in reducing marihuana aggressiveness in the REM-sleep-deprived rats. Actually, in these animals aggressiveness appreared even without the marihuana injection. Phenoxybenzamine partially blocked marihuana aggressiveness but also severely depressed the rats. However, 20 mg/kg alone succeeded in provoking aggressiveness in the deprived rats. It is suggested that in rats with neural excitability heightened by previous REM-sleep deprivation dopamine facilitates aggressive behavior, an effect inhibited by porepinephrine. This hypothesis would imply that marihuana induces aggressiveness in REM-sleep-deprived rats by inhibiting, through an as yet unknown mechanism, the central norepinephrine system.     

Social learning by following: an analysis

Learning by “following”, probably a common means by which behaviors are socially transmitted from adults to young in many species, was analyzed. Pigeons first learned to eat from a human hand. When the hand then approached an operant key and pecked it, the pigeons followed and quickly learned to do the same, thereby demonstrating social learning. When the hand only led the birds to the area of the key, without demonstrating the key-peck response, the birds learned as rapidly as with a key-peck demonstration. Birds also learned, but less reliably and more slowly, when they could observe the hand's responses but were constrained and unable to follow. “Following” was also shown to engender very rapid learning of a more complex, two-member response chain.     

Choice and the rate of punishment in concurrent schedules

Rats' responses on two levers were reinforced according to independent random-interval 1.5-min food schedules. In addition, both lever presses were intermittently punished according to several concurrent random-interval random-interval shock schedules. For the left, the scheduled rate of punishment was kept constant according to a random-interval 6-min schedule. For the right, the rate of punishment varied. As the frequency of punishment for the right lever press increased, its rate decreased. The rate of the left punished lever press increased, however, even though its scheduled reinforcement rate and punishment rate remained unchanged.