Toward accurate inferences of response class membership

In their review of synthesis within the functional analysis (FA) literature, Slaton and Hanley (2018) reported that most synthesized contingency analyses have included multiple topographies of problem behavior in the reinforcement contingency class. This leaves the question of whether one, some, or all forms of problem behavior are sensitive to the synthesized reinforcement contingencies in published analyses. To address this ambiguity, all topographies of problem behavior that were reported by caregivers to co-occur with the most concerning problem behavior were analyzed for 10 participants. We implemented extinction across one or more forms of problem behavior to determine whether all forms reported to co-occur were sensitive to the same synthesized reinforcement contingency. For nine of 10 participants, the most concerning topographies were sensitive to the same synthesized reinforcement contingencies as the less concerning topographies (results were inconclusive for one). Implications for inferring response class membership from single analyses are discussed.     

Adventitious reinforcement during long-duration DRO exposure

Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) is a procedure often used to decrease problem behavior, but the processes responsible for behavior reduction are not well understood. This study assessed whether adventitious reinforcement of other behavior contributes to DRO effectiveness when, relative to previous research, DRO exposure is prolonged. Two response options were presented on a computer and target responding was reinforced on a variable-ratio schedule. Response rates were then compared during DRO versus yoked variable-time or extinction probes. Across 2 experiments, DRO decreased target responding and increased other responding more than control conditions. However, increases in other responding did not usually maintain despite target responding remaining at low levels. DRO might adventitiously reinforce other responses transiently but the decreases in target behavior could not be entirely explained by adventitious reinforcement of the other response. Instead, reductions in target responding likely depend on the discriminability of the DRO contingency.     

Sensitization of escape in female Betta splendens

Following 1 day of cohabitation with a male, female Siamese fighting fish showed heightened escape from male conspecifics (enclosed behind glass). Escape from males was general in that no particular male stimulus was required to provoke female escape. However, female conspecifics remained relatively attractive following exposure to a male. Tactile stimulation of females by males (biting, perhaps) plays some role and may be required in sensitizing females' escape from males. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Revisiting the learning-without-awareness question in human pavlovian autonomic conditioning: Focus on extinction in a dichotic listening paradigm

Numerous studies have indicated that, consistent with current “cognitive” accounts of information processing, human Pavlovian autonomic discrimination acquisition cannot occur without awareness of the CS-US relationship. However, extinction studies have suggested that awareness is not necessary, findings that, in information-processing terms, have been explained by assuming that the processing by the extinction stage is parallel (automatic) rather than serial (controlled). This explanation was tested in an 80-subject study. The first, acquisition phase was a standard semantic differential conditioning arrangement with a 96-db white noise as US, and a “long” CS-US interval of 8 s, with ten trials each of CS+ (paired with US) and CS− (unpaired) trials. In extinction (USs omitted), in order to obtain non-autonomic indices of processing and thereby test the information-processing account of “unaware” autonomic conditioning during extinction, a dichotic listening task was implemented, with the CSs presented in the unattended channel (ear), while the subject had to perform a semantic differential reaction task in an attended-to channel (other ear). In early extinction, the electrodermal response occurring at an interval of 9–15 s after CS onset (i.e., following placement of the US during acquisition) and the finger-pulse-volume response occurring at an interval of 4–11 s after CS onset both showed reliable conditioning, but reaction-time and subjective-report data for the recognized critical words indicated serial rather than parallel processing of the CSs during extinction.     

The effect of on‐ or off‐line extinction of a first‐order conditioned stimulus on a second‐order conditioned response in rats

In a water‐licking experiment with rats, the effects of the extinction of a first‐order conditioned stimulus (CS1) on the suppression of licking established for a second‐order conditioned stimulus (CS2) were explored. Extinction of the first‐order conditioned response (CR1) attenuated the conditioned suppression induced by CS2 when the rats had been allowed to lick water during the CR1 extinction phase. However, if water had been unavailable during the CR1 extinction phase, suppression by CS2 was not affected. The latter result is consistent with other studies of rats' conditioned suppression and suggests that the underlying mechanism of second‐order conditioning in this experiment is a connection between CS2 and the response elicited by CS1 rather than a CS2‐CS1 connection. The former result was interpreted as the CR1 extinction phase encouraging the rats to lick water despite the fear elicited by CS1, and thus, in testing, they licked despite the fear elicited by CS2.     

Parental use of escape extinctionand differential reinforcement to treat food selectivity.

Escape extinction combined with differential reinforcement for acceptance has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment for food selectivity when implemented by trained professionals in clinic settings. This study evaluated the efficacy of parent-implemented escape extinction in the child''s natural environment using video monitoring to train parents and assess intervention efficacy. Parents were able to use intervention to significantly increase bites accepted and decrease problem behavior.     

Effects of continuous and intermittent reinforcement for problem behavior during functional communication training

We evaluated the effectiveness of functional communication training (FCT) in reducing problem behavior and in strengthening alternative behavior when FCT was implemented without extinction. Following the completion of functional analyses in which social-positive reinforcement was identified as the maintaining variable for 5 participants' self-injurious behavior (SIB) and aggression, the participants were first exposed to FCT in which both problem behavior and alternative behavior were reinforced continuously (i.e., on fixed-ratio [FR] 1 schedules). During subsequent FCT conditions, the schedule of reinforcement for problem behavior was made more intermittent (e.g., FR 2, FR 3, FR 5, etc.), whereas alternative behavior was always reinforced according to an FR 1 schedule. Results showed that 1 participant's problem behavior decreased and alternative behavior increased during FCT when both behaviors were reinforced on FR 1 schedules. The remaining 4 participants shifted response allocation from problem to alternative behavior as the schedule of reinforcement for problem behavior became more intermittent. These results suggest that individuals might acquire alternative responses during FCT in spite of inconsistencies in the application of extinction, although even small errors in reinforcement may compromise treatment effects.     

Drug discrimination: stimulus control during repeated testing in extinction

Rats were trained, under a two-lever drug-discrimination procedure, to respond differentially depending upon whether lorazepam (1.0 mg/kg) or no injection had been administered before the session. Responses on the appropriate lever produced a food pellet under a modified fixed-ratio (FR) 10 schedule, in which the 10 responses had to be emitted consecutively. In reinforcement tests, completing an FR 10 on either lever produced a pellet. In extinction tests, stimulus changes paired with reinforcement occurred but no pellet was delivered. Training sessions were conducted between test sessions. Each of four extinction phases consisted of six tests preceded by one stimulus (e.g., lorazepam). Repeated exposures to extinction reduced response rates for all rats, but stimulus control, as inferred from either percentage of total responses or percentage of total FR 10s on the drug-appropriate lever, remained high. The percentage of total FR 10s measure was less subject to skewing under low-rate conditions than was the percentage of total responses measure and provided an evaluation of stimulus control in terms of meeting the consecutive response contingency. These results demonstrate a level of independence between response rate and stimulus control in drug discrimination, which has positive implications for the validity of interpreting discriminative effects of novel test conditions in well-trained animals, even when overall response rates are low.     

Devaluation of stimuli contingent on choice: evidence for conditioned reinforcement

Pigeons were presented a concurrent-chains schedule of reinforcement that had terminal links of equal duration. The initial links of the schedule were periodically interrupted by 15-s periods during which an extinction schedule was in effect. The extinction periods were presented on either a response-contingent or a noncontingent basis. Relative response rate for the left alternative decreased when the extinction periods were accompanied by the left terminal-link stimulus. Relative response rate for the right alternative decreased when the extinction periods were accompanied by the right terminal-link stimulus. Relative response rate varied inversely with the frequency of presentation of the extinction periods but was unaffected by presence versus absence of the response contingency in the schedule of extinction-period presentation. Furthermore, relative response rate was unaffected by presentation of extinction periods accompanied by a novel stimulus. When the extinction periods were presented after reinforcement in the left terminal link instead of as interruptions of the initial links, relative response rate for the left alternative was reduced if the postreinforcement extinction period was accompanied by the terminal-link stimulus for the left chain and reduced less if the extinction period was accompanied by the terminal-link stimulus for the right chain. The results demonstrate that the correlation between the terminal-link stimulus and extinction influenced the relative response rate in the initial link.     

Resistance to change produced by access to fixed-delay versus variable-delay terminal links

Pigeons' responding was reinforced on a multiple schedule consisting of two two-link chain schedules presented in regular alternation. Responding in initial links (always variable-interval 60-s) produced a key-color change and access to a terminal link. The terminal link for one chain provided food after a fixed delay (fixed-interval or fixed-time); the terminal link for the other provided food after a variable delay (variable-interval or variable-time). The average duration of the terminal-link schedules was varied across conditions, but in every condition the arithmetic mean of the variable-delay terminal-link schedule was equal to the duration of the fixed delay. Response rates were higher in the initial links of the chains with the variable-delay terminal links. Response-decreasing operations (satiation, extinction) were used after performances reached asymptote. Response rates maintained by access to variable-delay terminal links tended to be more resistant to change than were rates maintained by access to fixed-delay terminal links. These results are consistent with the preference for variable- over fixed-interval terminal links observed with concurrent-chains schedules, suggesting (1) that immediacy of reinforcement influences the conditioned reinforcing potency of access to a terminal link and (2) that choice in concurrent chains and resistance of responding to change may be manifestations of the same effect of reinforcement.