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.     

Conditioned nausea after cancer chemotherapy and autonomic nervous system conditionability

There are marked individual differences in conditioned nausea after cancer chemotherapy. To examine if part of this variation is associated with individual differences in autonomic nervous system conditionability, the present study addressed whether patients with conditioned nausea acquired conditioned heart rate and electrodermal responses at a different rate than patients without conditioned nausea. Of 28 relapse-free patients who had completed cisplatinum treatment for testicular cancer between 1981 and 1986, 10 reported persistent conditioned nausea, 8 extinguished conditioned nausea and 10 no conditioned nausea. These three groups were subjected to a differential conditioning paradigm with 8 sec pictorial stimuli (circles and triangles) serving as conditioned stimuli for an unconditioned electric shock while heart rate and electrodermal activity was monitored. There were 4 habituation, 8 acquisition and 8 extinction trials with each of the two cues. Analyses of variance using nausea status as the independent variable and physiological responses as the dependent lended some support to the notion that conditioned heart rate deceleration developed in response to the reinforced compared to the nonreinforced cue during acquisition in the two groups with persistent or extinguished conditioned nausea but not in the group with no conditioned nausea. In addition, patients that displayed good, as compared to poor heart rate conditionability during acquisition, were more likely to have persistent conditioned nausea, whereas those who showed poor heart rate conditioning mostly were those without conditioned nausea. Electrodermal variables revealed no systematic differences between groups. This tentatively supports that individual differences in parasympathetic but not sympathetic nervous system conditionability may be associated with individual differences in conditioned nausea resulting from cancer chemotherapy.     

How does celebrity meaning transfer? Investigating the process of meaning transfer with celebrity affiliates and mature brands

The influence of celebrity spokespersons has largely been examined using source models from the communication literature that feature explicit persuasive messages. Alternatively, theorizing by McCracken (1989) offers a more comprehensive explanation based on meaning transfer. Our research elaborates McCracken's model by investigating a cognitive process underlying meaning transfer. Evaluative conditioning procedures are used as the tool to expose this process. To assess celebrity influence as it may operate in the marketplace, well-known brands and well-known celebrities are featured. The results support, at the individual level, McCracken's theoretical axiom concerning meaning transfer from celebrity affiliate to brand.