Deprivation and satiation: The interrelations between food and wheel running

Two experiments were designed to assess whether depriving rats of food would increase the reinforcement effectiveness of wheel running (Experiment 1) and whether satiation for wheel running would decrease the reinforcement effectiveness of food (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, a progressive-ratio schedule was used to measure the reinforcement effectiveness of wheel running when rats were deprived or not deprived of food. Completion of a fixed number of lever presses released a brake on a running wheel for 60 s, and the response requirement was systematically increased until the rat stopped pressing or until 8 hr had elapsed. The ratio value reached (and the total number of lever presses) was an inverted-U function of food deprivation (percentage body weight). In Experiment 2, when wheel running preceded test sessions, fewer food-reinforced lever presses were maintained by the progressive-ratio schedule, and responding occurred at a lower rate on a variable-interval schedule. An interpretation of these results is that deprivation or satiation with respect to one event (such as food) alters the reinforcement effectiveness of a different event (such as access to wheel running).     

Choice, matching, and human behavior: A review of the literature

This review concerns human performance on concurrent schedules of reinforcement. Studies indicate that humans match relative behavior to relative rate of reinforcement. Herrnstein's proportional matching equation describes human performance but most studies do not evaluate the equation at the individual level. Baum's generalized matching equation has received strong support with humans as subjects. This equation permits the investigation of sources of deviation from ideal matching and a few studies have suggested variables which control such deviations in humans. While problems with instructional control are raised, the overall findings support the matching law as a principle of human choice.     

The basic importance of applied behavior analysis

We argue that applied behavior analysis is relevant to basic research. Modification studies, and a broad range of investigations that focus on the precipitating and maintaining conditions of socially significant human behavior, have basic importance. Applied behavior analysis may aid basic researchers in the design of externally valid experiments and thereby enhance the theoretical significance of basic research for understanding human behavior. Applied research with humans, directed at culturally-important problems, will help to propagate the science of human behavior. Such a science will also be furthered by analogue experiments that model socially important behavior. Analytical-applied studies and analogue experiments are forms of applied behavior analysis that could suggest new environment-behavior relationships. These relationships could lead to basic research and principles that further the prediction, control, and understanding of behavior.     

How to be a successful psychotherapist no matter what the effect on behavior: the corn soup principle

An accidental discovery in a Hospital Cafeteria led to the formulation of non-therapeutic intervention. This paper describes how therapy may be successful for the therapist, independent of changes in the client.     

What happened to analysis in applied behavior analysis?

This paper addresses the current help-oriented focus of researchers in applied behavior analysis. Evidence from a recent volume of JABA suggests that analytic behavior is at low levels in applied analysis while cure-help behavior is at high strength. This low proportion of scientific behavior is apparantly related to cure-help contingencies set by institutions and agencies of help and the editorial policies of JABA itself. These contingencies have favored the flight to real people and a concern with client gains, evaluation and outcome strategies rather than the analysis of contingencies of reinforcement controlling human behavior. In this regard, the paper documents the current separation of applied behavior analysis from the experimental analysis of behavior. There is limited use of basic principles in applied analysis today and almost no reference to the current research in the experimental analysis of behavior involving concurrent operants and adjunctive behavior. This divorce of applied behavior research and the experimental analysis of behavior will mitigate against progress toward a powerful technology of behavior. In order to encourage a return to analysis in applied research, there is a need to consider the objectives of applied behavior analysis. The original purpose of behavioral technology is examined and a re-definition of the concept of "social importance" is presented which can direct applied researchers toward an analytic focus. At the same time a change in the publication policies of applied journals such as JABA toward analytic research and the design of new educational contingencies for students will insure the survival of analysis in applied behavior analysis.     

The applied importance of research on the matching law

In this essay, we evaluate the applied implications of two articles related to the matching law and published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, May 1994. Building on Mace's (1994) criteria for increasing the applied relevance of basic research, we evaluate the applied implications of basic research studies. Research by Elsmore and McBride (1994) and Savastano and Fantino (1994) involve an extension of the behavioral model of choice. Elsmore and McBride used rats as subjects, but arranged a multioperant environment that resembles some of the complex contingencies of human behavior. Savastino and Fantino used human subjects and extended the matching law to ratio and interval contingencies. These experiments contribute to a growing body of knowledge on the matching law and its relevance for human behavior.     

Applied behavior analysis: New directions from the laboratory

Applied behavior analysis began when laboratory based principles were extended to humans inorder to change socially significant behavior. Recent laboratory findings may have applied relevance; however, the majority of basic researchers have not clearly communicated the practical implications of their work. The present paper samples some of the new findings and attempts to demonstrate their applied importance. Schedule-induced behavior which occurs as a by-product of contingencies of reinforcement is discussed. Possible difficulties in treatment and management of induced behaviors are considered. Next, the correlation-based law of effect and the implications of relative reinforcement are explored in terms of applied examples. Relative rate of reinforcement is then extended to the literature dealing with concurrent operants. Concurrent operant models may describe human behavior of applied importance, and several techniques for modification of problem behavior are suggested. As a final concern, the paper discusses several new paradigms. While the practical importance of these models is not clear at the moment, it may be that new practical advantages will soon arise. Thus, it is argued that basic research continues to be of theoretical and practical importance to applied behavior analysis.