Autoshaping the pigeon's gape response: acquisition and topography as a function of reinforcer type and magnitude.

The pigeon's key-pecking response is experimentally dissociable into transport (head movement) and gape (jaw movement) components. During conditioning of the key-pecking response, both components come under the control of the conditioned stimulus. To study the acquisition of gape conditioned responses and to clarify the contribution of unconditioned stimulus (reinforcer) variables to the form of the response, gape and key-contact responses were recorded during an autoshaping procedure and reinforcer properties were systematically varied. One group of 8 pigeons was food deprived and subgroups of 2 birds each were exposed to four different pellet sizes as reinforcers, each reinforcer signaled by a keylight conditioned stimulus. A second group was water deprived and received water reinforcers paired with the conditioned stimulus. Water- or food-deprived control groups received appropriate water or food reinforcers that were randomly delivered with respect to the keylight stimulus. Acquisition of the conditioned gape response frequently preceded key-contact responses, and gape conditioned responses were generally elicited at higher rates than were key contacts. The form of the conditioned gape was similar to, but not identical with, the form of the unconditioned gape. The gape component is a critical topographical feature of the conditioned key peck, a sensitive measure of conditioning during autoshaping, and an important source of the observed similarities in the form of conditioned and consummatory responses.     

In vitro reinforcement of hippocampal bursting: a search for Skinner's atoms of behavior.

A novel "in vitro reinforcement" paradigm was used to investigate Skinner's (1953) hypotheses (a) that operant behavior is made up of infinitesimal "response elements" or "behavioral atoms" and (b) that these very small units, and not whole responses, are the functional units of reinforcement. Our tests are based on the assumption that behavioral atoms may plausibly be represented at the neural level by individual cellular responses. As a first approach, we attempted to reinforce the bursting responses of hippocampal units in a highly reduced brain-slice preparation with local micropressure applications of behaviorally reinforcing dopaminergic drugs. The same injections were administered independently of bursting to provide a "noncontingent" control for nonspecific stimulation or facilitation of firing. It was found that the bursting responses of individual CA1 pyramidal neurons may be progressively facilitated in a dose-related manner by response-contingent (but not noncontingent) injections of dopamine itself, the dopamine D1-preferring agonist SKF 82958, the D3-preferring agonist quinpirole, and the D2-like selective agonist (+)-4-propyl-9 hydroxynapthoxazine. These findings support the conclusion that unit bursting responses can be reinforced in vitro in hippocampal slices, and they further suggest that the same dopamine receptor subtypes are involved in both cellular and behavioral operant conditioning. The results thus provide indirect support for Skinner's atoms-of-behavior hypothesis.     

Behavior analysis and the search for the origins of hypertension.

Hypertension is a disorder of sodium regulation that develops over time in a context of the interactions of the individual with the environment. Experimental hypertension can be induced in laboratory animals and normotensive humans via increases in sodium intake under conditions of aversive behavioral control. Readiness for avoidance contingencies includes a breathing pattern characterized by subnormal rate and normal tidal volume. Studies with humans have shown that this inhibitory breathing pattern is associated with increased plasma acidity, increased renal sodium reabsorption, increased secretion of digitalis-like hormones that inhibit sodium-pump activity, and increased vasoconstriction and blood pressure. Behavioral research is needed that defines the necessary and sufficient conditions for inhibitory breathing and its role in the development of hypertension.     

Shaping in the 21st century: Moving percentile schedules into applied settings

The present paper provides a primer on percentile reinforcement schedules, which have been used for two decades to study response differentiation and shaping in the laboratory. Arranged in applied settings, percentile procedures could be used to specify response criteria, standardizing treatment across subjects, trainers, and times to provide a more consistent training environment while maintaining the sensitivity to the individual's repertoire that is the hallmark of shaping. Percentile schedules are also valuable tools in analyzing the variables of which responding is a function, both inside and outside the laboratory. Finally, by formalizing the rules of shaping, percentile schedules provide a useful heuristic of the processes involved in shaping behavior, even for those situations that may not easily permit their implementation. As such, they may help further sensitize trainers and researchers alike to variables of critical importance in behavior change.     

A transformation of respondently conditioned stimulus function in accordance with arbitrarily applicable relations.

Adult male subjects saw a sexual film clip paired with a nonsense syllable (C1). Similarly, an emotionally neutral film clip was paired with a second nonsense syllable (C3). Responses to the nonsense syllables were recorded as skin resistance responses. Subjects were also trained in a series of related conditional discriminations, using the C1 and C3 stimuli, from which the following equivalence relations were predicted; A1-B1-C1, A2-B2-C2, and A3-B3-C3. Some subjects were given matching-to-sample (equivalence) tests after the conditional discrimination training (Experiment 1), whereas others were not (Experiment 2). Subjects were tested for a transformation of eliciting functions by presenting the A1 and A3 stimuli, which were related through equivalence to C1 and C3, respectively. Five of the 6 subjects who showed significantly greater conditioned responses to C1 than to C3, also showed significantly greater skin resistance responses to A1 than to A3. Two additional subjects demonstrated a transformation of an eliciting stimulus function in accordance with five-member equivalence relations (Experiment 3), and another 5 subjects demonstrated similar effects in accordance with the relations of sameness and opposition (Experiment 4).     

Verbal behavior

The recent history and current status of the area of verbal behavior are considered in terms of three major thematic lines: the operant conditioning of adult verbal behavior, learning to be an effective speaker and listener, and developments directly related to Skinner's Verbal Behavior. Other topics not directly related to the main themes are also considered: the work of Kurt Salzinger, ape-language research, and human operant research related to rule-governed behavior.     

THE AVERSIVE CONTROL OF EXCESSIVE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION BY CHRONIC ALCOHOLICS IN THE LABORATORY SETTING1

The efficacy of several methods of aversive control of excessive alcoholic drinking was investigated in a semi-naturalistic setting that permitted objective measurement of the drinking behavior of chronic alcoholics. Studies 1A and 1B compared an escape-conditioning procedure with a control procedure in which aversive electrical shocks were administered before drinking. Neither procedure effectively decreased subjects' pretreatment, baseline alcoholic drinking behavior. In Study 2, aversive response-contingent shocks effectively suppressed alcoholic drinking, but drinking subsequently returned to its former levels after withdrawal of punishment. Self-administered shock appeared to be as effective as experimenter-administered punishment for controlling drinking, even when the punishment contingency was faded out over time. Study 3 replicated the suppressant effect of punishment, and demonstrated that contingent shock was significantly more effective than yoked, noncontingent shock. A direct comparison of self- versus experimenter-administered punishment suggested a possible slight advantage for the latter.     

The associative relation underlying autoshaping in the pigeon

Fifteen pigeons were exposed to either response-independent or response-dependent schedules of water reinforcement, whereby water was injected directly into the unrestrained pigeons' mandibles. Key-contact responses were released by a lighted key correlated with water, but not by a lighted key uncorrelated with water. A negative response-reinforcer contingency suppressed autoshaped key-contact responses, resulting in responding directed away from the lighted key. In all pigeons, water injected directly into the mandibles elicited a consummatory fixed-action pattern of “mumbling” and swallowing. The lighted key correlated with water released a broader set of both appetitive and consummatory responses: approach to the lighted key, “bowing”, “rooting”, “mumbling”, and swallowing. Key-contact responses were “rooting” and “mumbling” motions of the beak on the surface of the key. Views of autoshaping based on stimulus substitution or stimulus surrogation do not fully explain the origin of autoshaped responses not previously elicited by the reinforcer. The present findings are consonant with views of conditioning that emphasize the large degree of biological pre-organization in conditioned response patterns, and the importance of associative factors in the control of such patterns.     

ATTENTION TRAINING: THE USE OF OVERCORRECTION AVOIDANCE TO INCREASE THE EYE CONTACT OF AUTISTIC AND RETARDED CHILDREN

A crucial first step in teaching and training the retarded and autistic is to develop and maintain eye contact with the therapist. Functional movement training (an overcorrection procedure) plus edibles and praise were compared with edibles and praise alone as a method of developing eye contact in three such children. In both conditions, the child was given food and praise when eye contact occurred within 5 sec of the therapist's verbal prompt: “Look at me.” Functional movement training avoidance plus edibles and praise produced about 90% attention for the three children, while edibles and praise alone were less effective (eye contact never exceeded 55%). Functional movement training avoidance combined with edibles and praise appears to be an effective method of teaching eye contact and possibly other forms of instruction-following to behaviorally disordered children who are not always responsive to positive consequences.