bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
EFFECTS OF MORPHINE, CLONIDINE, AND INTENSITY CHANGE ON ELECTRIC‐SHOCK DISCRIMINATION
Authors: Genovese Raymond F. , Dykstra Linda A.
Published: March 2006

The effects of morphine, clonidine, and changes in stimulus intensity were examined in squirrel monkeys responding on one of two levers following brief presentations of one of two electric‐shock intensities (0.1 and 0.5 mA). Responses were designated as correct or incorrect depending on which shock intensity had been presented and which lever was pressed. Morphine (0.42 to 1.80 mg/kg) and clonidine (0.075 to 0.18 mg/kg) decreased percentage correct responding. Morphine and clonidine also increased response latency and the number of shock presentations that were not followed by responses. Changes in shock intensity also decreased percentage correct responding but had no effect on response latency or on the number of shock presentations not followed by responses.
BEHAVIOR REGULATION AND LEARNED PERFORMANCE: SOME MISAPPREHENSIONS AND DISAGREEMENTS
Authors: Timberlake William
Published: March 2006

The behavior‐regulation approach to learned performance has been the subject of misapprehension and disagreement concerning: (1) the nature and importance of behavior regulation, (2) the definition and role of behavioral set‐points, (3) the relation of optimal schedule performance to behavioral set‐points, and (4) the question of whether deviations from total responding or from response patterns are the primary determinant of molar responding under schedule constraint. After clarifying the nature and role of behavior regulation and set‐points, this paper shows that the data used to question optimal schedule performance (Allison, 1981a) actually strongly support the general behavior‐regulation approach. These data also indicate a role for response‐pattern set‐points in determining schedule behavior, but contradict the hypothesis that deviations from response‐pattern characteristics are the primary determinant of molar schedule effects.
DISCRIMINATION OF RESPONSE‐REINFORCER AND RESPONSE‐STIMULUS CONTINGENCIES IN PIGEONS
Authors: Dodd Peter W. D.
Published: March 2006

For three pigeons (Experiment 1), the presentation of a red response key ended with a food presentation either following two responses separated by at least 10 seconds (a DRL contingency) or following a 10‐second response‐free period (a DRO contingency). For three other birds (Experiment 2), a brief stimulus presentation terminated the DRL and DRO contingencies. A white side key was presented next and ended with response‐dependent food following one contingency and a timeout following the other. Since the contingency on the red key was unsignaled, differential responding on the white side key could indicate that the two response‐reinforcer relations had been discriminated. In Experiment 1, the red‐key duration and number of responses influenced white‐key responding following the contingency that predicted the timeout. A response‐initiated DRO was instated, and the influence of red‐key duration and response number on white‐key responding was diminished. In both experiments, the 10‐second time criterion in both contingencies was varied from 0.34 second to 10 seconds. Even at short time intervals the DRO and DRL contingencies were readily discriminated. Pigeons tended to class the two contingencies according to a rule that did not involve simply stimulus duration, numbers of responses, or even the time between a response and its consequence.
ON THE FURTHER MATURING OF BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS: A REVIEW OF COMMONS, HERRNSTEIN, AND RACHLIN'S MATCHING AND MAXIMIZING ACCOUNTS1
Authors: Miller H. L.
Published: March 2006

Preparation of this review was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from Brigham Young University. I thank Kary Houston and David Foster for discussion of issues raised in the review and John M. Ziriax, M. C. Newland, and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on the manuscript.
STIMULUS CONTROL OF SCHEDULE‐INDUCED ACTIVITY IN PIGEONS DURING MULTIPLE SCHEDULES
Authors: Buzzard Janis H. , Hake Don F.
Published: March 2006

Stimulus control of schedule‐induced general activity was demonstrated with pigeons using multiple schedules of response‐independent food delivery. In Experiment 1, the introduction of food during a multiple variable‐time 30‐second variable‐time 30‐second schedule produced a tenfold increase in activity above the no‐food baseline. Each pigeon developed stable differential activity rates during the components (correlated with red and green lights) of a multiple variable‐time 30‐second extinction schedule. Lengthening the extinction component from 1 to 7 minutes increased the rate differences and produced a reliable pattern of responding during S— (the stimulus correlated with extinction): Activity rate was high immediately following the change from S+ (the stimulus correlated with variable‐time 30‐second) to S—, then decreased abruptly and remained low throughout the middle of the interval, and subsequently showed a positively accelerated increase until the stimulus changed to S+. In Experiment 2, three pigeons were exposed to a mixed variable‐time extinction schedule prior to a multiple variable‐time extinction schedule. Auditory rather than visual stimuli were used to determine the generality of Experiment 1 results. The multiple‐versus mixed‐schedule results indicated that stimulus control of activity occurred for two of the birds, but rate differences between S+ and S— were much less than those demonstrated with visual stimuli. A direct comparison of visual and auditory stimulus control in Experiment 3 supported this conclusion. These parallels between the stimulus control of reinforced responding and that of schedule‐induced activity suggest that the stimulus control of induced activity may be a factor in operant stimulus control.
EFFECTS OF SEARCH COST ON FORAGING AND FEEDING: A THREE‐COMPONENT CHAIN ANALYSIS
Authors: Peden Blaine F. , Rohe Michael S.
Published: March 2006

An experiment determined whether pigeons minimize number of key pecks per food delivery and maintain their baseline intake of food while key pecking on a three‐component chain schedule. Pigeons at either 80% or 100% body weight obtained all their food during baseline and contingency sessions. During baseline sessions, pecks on the left and center keys had no consequences; each peck on the right key activated the feeder. During contingency sessions, pigeons key pecked on a three‐component chain schedule simulating components of a foraging chain. In the search component either 3, 9 or 15 key pecks (varied parametrically across blocks of sessions) on the left key produced a stimulus on the middle key, indicating an encounter with either the low‐cost prey (3 key pecks) or an equally probable high‐cost prey (21 key pecks). In the procurement component the pigeon pecked either: (a) the left key once, thus returning to the search component, or (b) the middle key either 3 or 21 times, which activated the right response key. In the handling component one peck on the right key operated the feeder. The pigeons always procured the low‐cost prey and minimized the number of key pecks per hopper by procuring the high‐cost prey when the search‐cost ratio was high (15 key pecks) but not when it was low (3 key pecks). All pigeons maintained their baselines of eating during contingency sessions by key pecking more frequently and eating more efficiently. The 80% body‐weight birds produced higher overall rates of key pecking and eating. These results have implications for ecological theories of optimal foraging and for psychological theories of learned performance.
EFFECTS ON PREFERENCE OF REINFORCEMENT DELAY, NUMBER OF REINFORCERS, AND TERMINAL‐LINK DURATION
Authors: Poniewaz Wayne R.
Published: March 2006

Three experiments used concurrent‐chains procedures to examine the effects of reinforcement delay, number of reinforcers, and terminal‐link duration on preference. In Condition 30 of Experiment 1, food was delivered after 30 seconds in each 150‐second terminal link, with four additional food deliveries occurring at 30‐second intervals in one of the links. In Condition 5, food was delivered after 5 seconds in each 25‐second terminal link, and the four additional reinforcers were delivered at 5‐second intervals. Preferences for the multiple‐food chain were greater in Condition 30. In Experiment 2, the terminal link(s) providing only one reinforcer terminated immediately after delivery of the reinforcer. Preferences for the multiple‐food chain were smaller than in Experiment 1. In Condition 5 of Experiment 3, food was delivered after 5, 75, 100, 125, and 150 seconds in one 150‐second link and after 5 seconds in the other. Condition 50 differed only in that the first (or only) reinforcer in each link was delivered after 50 seconds instead of after 5 seconds. Preferences for the multiple‐food chain were greater in Condition 50. Results of Experiments 1 and 2 do not correspond to results obtained by Moore (1979).
SIGNAL MODALITY AND CHOICE BETWEEN SIGNALED AND UNSIGNALED FOOD
Authors: Harsh John , Badia Pietro , Ryan Kathy
Published: March 2006

Choice between signaled and unsignaled response‐independent food schedules was assessed in three experiments using a commitment procedure. In Experiment 1, subjects tested with a 5‐s visual signal consistently changed from the signaled to the unsignaled schedule. Changing from the unsignaled to the signaled schedule was observed only occasionally and only at low levels. The same outcome was observed in Experiment 2 with different types of visual signals and with different stimulus combinations identifying the signal period, the signal‐absent period, and the unsignaled schedule. In Experiment 3 the visual signal was replaced with an auditory signal for four of the subjects tested in Experiment 2. The subjects then changed from the unsignaled to the signaled schedule or showed a substantial reduction in choice for the unsignaled schedule. The data were assessed using a conditioned‐reinforcement interpretation of choice.
DISCRIMINABILITY OF FREQUENCY OF FOOD OR STIMULUS PRESENTATIONS IN VARIABLE‐TIME SCHEDULES
Authors: Mandell Charlotte
Published: March 2006

Pigeons responded in a two‐alternative forced‐choice task in which reinforcement was dependent upon the frequency of events that occurred in an immediately preceding schedule sample. On a given trial the events were either brief food presentations or brief visual and auditory stimulus changes. High levels of stimulus control were obtained by food‐presentation schedules only. Discriminative control by frequency or stimulus change was absent. Stimulus control by food frequency was decreased by the imposition of a delay period between the schedule sample and the choice. Moreover, stimulus control by food frequency was related to the ratio of food‐presentation schedule pairs when novel schedules were presented in a transfer test.
CONCEPTUAL APPROACHES AND ISSUES
Authors: Marr M. Jackson
Published: March 2006

The experimental analysis of behavior has lagged far behind mainstream psychology, particularly cognitive psychology, in the study of complex behavior — remembering, thinking, imaging, problem solving, and the like. Yet it is the study of these kinds of behavior that will provide the greatest justification of our continued existence in the community of behavioral scientists. Focusing primarily on remembering as a complex performance, aspects of (1) radical behaviorism, (2) the methodology of the experimental analysis of behavior, and (3) the special contributions of B. F. Skinner are assessed as explicitly or implicitly discouraging the experimental treatment of such complex behavior. Although there are encouraging signs of advancement into the present domains of cognitive psychology, future success of the experimental analysis of behavior in this endeavor will require aggressive pursuit by investigators and more effective training of their students.
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS: COOPERATION AND COMPETITION
Authors: Schmitt David R.
Published: March 2006

Social relations between two persons require that consequences each receives depend at least in part on the responses of the other. Historically, research in several areas has focused on two contingencies, cooperation and competition, in which reinforcement is determined by the responses of both participants. A major research question in social psychology and applied behavior analysis has been: Which contingency is more effective with regard to the quantity or quality of some response? Although this question has not been addressed in the experimental analysis of behavior, this area provides a perspective and method to more fully investigate the relevant controlling variables. Among these are the frequency of opportunities to audit the performances of others, information (or lack of it) provided by social or nonsocial stimuli with regard to reinforcement and performance, degree of face‐to‐face interaction, types of reinforcement contingencies, and number of participants. A neglected dependent variable is cost effectiveness — amount of behavior maintained by a given reinforcer amount. The larger agenda for the experimental analysis of interpersonal relations includes a variety of forms of reinforcement interdependence that raise issues of basic and applied interest.
COGNITION, BEHAVIOR, AND THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR
Authors: Shimp Charles P.
Published: March 2006

A case history illustrates how one research program in the experimental analysis of behavior evolved somewhat differently from the modal research program represented in this journal. A chief issue that seems to be responsible for this difference is the role attributed to theory in behavioral research: Skinner's views on the nature and function of theory and on the nature of observation combine to produce a certain kind of picture of behavior. The classic conception of reinforcement contingencies is tied to this particular picture. But this picture may be incompatible with, and certainly is different from, other possible pictures. Reinforcement contingencies that place greater emphasis on the local temporal patterning of behavior seem tied to some of these alternative pictures of what behavior is. These other pictures encourage a wide range of theoretical approaches, including cognitive ones, various kinds of mathematical analyses, and computer‐simulation methods to characterize entire behavior streams. In the future, perhaps the experimental analysis of behavior will accept a somewhat different range of views on the nature and function of theory, a correspondingly different set of experimental methods, and alternative ways of talking about behavior.
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
Authors: Nevin John A.
Published: March 2006

Quantitative analysis permits the isolation of invariant relations in the study of behavior. The parameters of these relations can serve as higher‐order dependent variables in more extensive analyses. These points are illustrated by reference to quantitative descriptions of performance maintained by concurrent schedules, multiple schedules, and signal‐detection procedures. Such quantitative descriptions of empirical data may be derived from mathematical theories, which in turn can lead to novel empirical analyses so long as their terms refer to behavioral and environmental events. Thus, quantitative analysis is an integral aspect of the experimental analysis of behavior.
BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS
Authors: Hursh Steven R.
Published: March 2006

Economics, like behavioral psychology, is a science of behavior, albeit highly organized human behavior. The value of economic concepts for behavioral psychology rests on (1) their empirical validity when tested in the laboratory with individual subjects and (2) their uniqueness when compared to established behavioral concepts. Several fundamental concepts are introduced and illustrated by reference to experimental data: open and closed economies, elastic and inelastic demand, and substitution versus complementarity. Changes in absolute response rate are analyzed in relation to elasticity and intensity of demand. The economic concepts of substitution and complementarity are related to traditional behavioral studies of choice and to the matching relation. The economic approach has many implications for the future of behavioral research and theory. In general, economic concepts are grounded on a dynamic view of reinforcement. The closed‐economy methodology extends the generality of behavioral principles to situations in which response rate and obtained rate of reinforcement are interdependent. Analysis of results in terms of elasticity and intensity of demand promises to provide a more direct method for characterizing the effects of “motivational” variables. Future studies of choice should arrange heterogeneous reinforcers with varying elasticities, use closed economies, and modulate scarcity or income. The economic analysis can be extended to the study of performances that involve subtle discriminations or skilled movements that vary in accuracy or quality as opposed to rate or quantity, and thus permit examination of time/accuracy trade‐offs.
THE SLEEPING GIANT: REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES
Authors: Zeiler Michael D.
Published: March 2006

Schedule research has been the core of operant conditioning, but it is no longer an active area, at least with respect to its traditional focus of describing and explaining moment‐to‐moment behavior. Yet schedules are central in psychology: Not only do they establish lawful behavior, but they also play a major role in determining the effects of other variables. The reason for the decline appears to be primarily theoretical, in that the work seems not to have led to meaningful integration. The search for controlling variables brought into play by schedule specification has proven unsuccessful, and a catalog of all possible schedule effects is of limited interest. The paper reviews the reasons for the contemporary state of affairs. One prediction about future developments is that instead of revealing component variables and their modes of interaction, schedule effects will be treated as basic empirical laws. Theory will take the form of abstract statements that integrate these separate laws by reference to higher‐order principles rather than by reduction to supposedly simpler component variables.
BIAS OF PHENCYCLIDINE DISCRIMINATION BY THE SCHEDULE OF REINFORCEMENT
Authors: McMillan D. E. , Wenger G. R.
Published: March 2006

Pigeons, trained to discriminate phencyclidine from saline under a procedure requiring the bird to track the location of a color, Received cumulative doses of phencyclidine, pentobarbital, or d‐amphetamine with a variety of schedules of reinforcement in effect (across phases). When the same second‐order schedules were used to reinforce responding after either saline or phencyclidine administration, stimulus control by phencyclidine did not depend on the schedule parameter. When different second‐order schedules were used that biased responding toward the phencyclidine‐correlated key color, pigeons responded on the phencyclidine‐correlated key at lower doses of phencyclidine and pentobarbital than when the second‐order schedule biased responding toward the saline key color. A similar but less marked effect was obtained with d‐amphetamine. Attempts to produce bias by changing reinforcement magnitude (duration of food availability) were less successful. A signal‐detection analysis of dose‐effect curves for phencyclidine under two of the second‐order schedules employed suggested that at low doses of phencyclidine, response bias is a major determinant of responding. As doses were increased, position preferences occurred and response bias decreased; at higher doses both response bias and position preference decreased and discriminability increased. With low doses of pentobarbital, responding again was biased but increasing doses produced position preference with only small increases in discriminability. At low doses of d‐amphetamine responding also was biased, but bias did not decrease consistently with dose nor did discriminability increase. These experiments suggest that the schedule of reinforcement can be used to bias responding toward or away from making the drug‐correlated response in drug discrimination experiments, and that signal‐detection analysis and analysis of responding at a position can be used to separate the discriminability of the drug state from other effects of the drug on responding.
AUTOCONTINGENCIES: SUPPRESSIVE AND ACCELERATIVE EFFECTS OF PAIRS OF SHOCKS SUPERIMPOSED ON A POSITIVELY REINFORCED OPERANT BASELINE
Authors: Davis Hank , Memmott John
Published: March 2006

Previous research has shown that unsignaled shock may accelerate positively reinforced operant responding if each shock signals a subsequent shock‐free period. In order to explore the boundary conditions of this effect, two experiments were performed. In Experiment 1, pairs of unsignaled shocks separated by 15, 30, 60, or 120 seconds resulted in suppressed responding during the briefest intershock interval, and in accelerated responding during the longer intervals. When the second shock in each pair signaled a shock‐free period of at least 3 minutes, accelerated responding also followed offset of the second shock in all but the 30‐second condition. In Experiment 2, the addition of a conditioned stimulus prior to each pair of shocks restored baseline responding, and eliminated accelerative control following the second shock only under the briefest intershock interval. The results are discussed in terms of the similarity between autocontingencies (shock/no‐shock relations; Davis, Memmott, & Hurwitz, 1975) and recent modifications of the feature‐positive procedure (e.g., Reberg & Memmott, 1979), which stress stimulus control by shock/no‐shock relationships.
LICK‐TRADING BY RATS: ON THE SUBSTITUTABILITY OF DRY, WATER, AND SACCHARIN TUBES
Authors: Allison James , Moore Kevin E.
Published: March 2006

Thirsty rats licked two metal tubes: a water tube paired with another water tube, with saccharin, or with a dry tube. For each pair, a multipoint baseline function was measured by offering free access to one tube throughout each session, and free or restricted access to the other. The three resulting baseline functions showed the members of each pair to be mutual substitutes: When access to either tube was restricted, the rats made more licks at the other. A linear function identified the two water tubes as perfect substitutes. Convex functions identified the members of the saccharin‐water and the dry‐water pair as imperfect substitutes. Each pair was also tested under several reciprocal fixed‐ratio schedules that required instrumental licking of either tube for contingent access to the other. The resulting schedule functions showed the members of each pair to be perfect substitutes: Water licks decreased linearly as licks at the other water tube, the saccharin, or the dry tube increased, in agreement with a conservation model of instrumental performance. Baseline and schedule functions, indistinguishable in the water‐water pair, indicated a schedule facilitation of dry‐tube licking in the dry‐water pair and of water‐tube licking in the saccharin‐water pair.
EFFECTS OF RATIO REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES ON DISCRIMINATION PERFORMANCE BY JAPANESE MONKEYS
Authors: Fujita Kazuo
Published: March 2006

In Experiment 1, Japanese monkeys were trained on three conditional position‐discrimination problems with colors as the conditional cues. Within each session, each problem was presented for two blocks of ten reinforcements; correct responses were reinforced under continuous‐reinforcement, fixed‐ratio 5, and variable‐ratio 5 schedules, each assigned to one of the three problems. The assignment of schedules to problems was rotated a total of three times (15 sessions per assignment) after 30 sessions of acquisition training. Accuracy of discrimination increased to a moderate level with fewer trials under CRF than under ratio schedules. In contrast, the two ratio schedules, fixed and variable, were more effective in maintaining accurate discrimination than was CRF. With further training, as asymptotes were reached, accuracy was less affected by the schedule differences. These results demonstrated an interaction between the effects of reinforcement schedules and the level of acquisition. In Experiment 2, ratio sizes were gradually increased to 30. Discrimination accuracy was maintained until the ratio reached 20; ratio 30 strained the performance. Under FR conditions, accuracy increased as correct choice responses cumulated after reinforcement.
REINFORCEMENT OF PROBE RESPONSES AND ACQUISITION OF STIMULUS CONTROL IN FADING PROCEDURES
Authors: Fields Lanny
Published: March 2006

Stimulus control of pigeons' key pecking was transferred from colors to lines by the method of stimulus fading. Fading was conducted with the addition of probes consisting of the line stimuli presented alone at each fading level. Probe responding was used to measure stimulus‐control acquisition by the lines. Effects of reinforcement and nonreinforcement of probe responding upon acquisition of stimulus control were assessed using a single‐organism repeated‐acquisition design in which three fades were conducted serially. Probe responding was not reinforced in the first and third fade but was in the second. Reinforcement of probe responding substantially reduced the number of fading levels needed to complete fading. The outcome of a control experiment ruled out the possibility of accounting for these results in terms of the specific stimuli used in each fade or in terms of the sequential exposure to the three discriminations. Although probes permitted measurement of stimulus‐control acquisition in fading, a measurement/acquisition interaction was also present.
HUMAN OBSERVING: MAINTAINED BY NEGATIVE INFORMATIVE STIMULI ONLY IF CORRELATED WITH IMPROVEMENT IN RESPONSE EFFICIENCY
Authors: Case David A. , Fantino Edmund , Wixted John
Published: March 2006

Two experiments investigated the effect of observing responses that enabled college students to emit more efficient distributions of reinforced responses. In Experiment 1, the gains of response efficiency enabled by observing were minimized through use of identical low‐effort response requirements in two alternating variable‐interval schedules. These comprised a mixed schedule of reinforcement; they differed in the number of money‐backed points per reinforcer. In each of three choices between two stimuli that varied in their correlation with the variable‐interval schedules, the results showed that subjects preferred stimuli that were correlated with the larger average amount of reinforcement. This is consistent with a conditioned‐reinforcement hypothesis. Negative informative stimuli — that is, stimuli correlated with the smaller of two rewards — did not maintain as much observing as stimuli that were uncorrelated with amount of reward. In Experiment 2, savings in effort made possible by producing S— were varied within subjects by alternately removing and reinstating the response‐reinforcement contingency in a mixed variable‐interval/extinction schedule of reinforcement. Preference for an uncorrelated stimulus compared to a negative informative stimulus (S—) decreased for each of six subjects, and usually reversed when observing permitted a more efficient temporal distribution of the responses required for reinforcement; in this case, the responses were pulls on a relatively high‐effort plunger. When observing the S— could not improve response efficiency, subjects again chose the control stimulus. All of these results were inconsistent with the uncertainty‐reduction hypothesis.
SIGN‐TRACKING WITH AN INTERFOOD CLOCK
Authors: Palya William L.
Published: March 2006

Food was presented to pigeons, irrespective of their behavior. The fixed 60‐s interfood interval was segmented into ten 6‐s periods, each signaled by a distinctive stimulus color, ordered by wavelength. This “interfood clock” reliably generated and maintained successively higher rates of key pecking at stimuli successively closer to food. Under extinction, key pecking ceased. When the standard stimulus sequence was changed to a different sequence for each bird, accelerated responding again emerged and was sustained under each of the new color sequences. However, responding was neither maintained nor acquired when each successive interfood interval provided a different random sequence of the ten stimuli. Thus, the interfood clock generated and maintained sign‐tracking under stimulus control, and the resulting behavior was attributable neither to stimulus generalization nor to a simple temporal gradient.
CHLORDIAZEPOXIDE EFFECTS ON ETHANOL SELF‐ADMINISTRATION: DEPENDENCE ON CONCURRENT CONDITIONS
Authors: Samson Herman H. , Grant Kathleen A.
Published: March 2006

Experiments examined the effects of acute doses of chlordiazepoxide upon ethanol self‐administration in the rat. A concurrent‐schedule procedure was used that employed choice between ethanol (5%) and a second fluid (either water or a 1% sucrose solution). When ethanol and water were the available fluids, chlordiazepoxide at doses of 15 and 20 mg/kg reduced ethanol‐reinforced responding and intake, with a greater reduction occurring at the 20 mg/kg dose. However, when ethanol and sucrose were concurrently available, in many rats only the 20 mg/kg dose of chlordiazepoxide reduced ethanol‐reinforced responding. The differences in dose response function occurred in most animals without large changes in the baseline ethanol‐reinforced responding across the two concurrent conditions. Thus the dose‐effect curve relating chlordiazepoxide and ethanol self‐administration can be altered, dependent upon the nature of the concurrently available reinforcers.
CHOICE: A LOCAL ANALYSIS
Authors: Vaughan William
Published: March 2006

Analyses of free‐operant choice usually employ one of two general procedures: the simple concurrent procedure (i.e., a concurrent variable‐interval variable‐interval schedule) or the concurrent‐chains procedure (i.e., concurrently available initial links, each leading to an exclusively available terminal link). Theories about choice usually focus on only one of the two procedures. For example, maximization theories, which assert that behavior is distributed between two alternatives in such a way that overall rate of reinforcement is maximized, have been applied only to the simple concurrent procedure. In the present paper, a form of the pairing hypothesis (according to which pairings between one stimulus and another affect the value of the first, and pairings between responses and reinforcers affect the value of the former) is developed in a way that allows it to make qualitative predictions with regard to choice in a variety of simple concurrent and concurrent‐chains procedures. The predictions include matching on concurrent variable‐interval variable‐interval schedules, preference reversal in the self‐control paradigm, and preference for tandem over chained terminal links.
INCENTIVE THEORY: IV. MAGNITUDE OF REWARD
Authors: Killeen Peter R.
Published: March 2006

Incentive theory is successfully applied to data from experiments in which the amount of food reward is varied. This is accomplished by assuming that incentive value is a negatively accelerated function of reward duration. The interaction of the magnitude of a reward with its delay is confirmed, and the causes and implications of this interaction are discussed.
DETERMINATION OF A BEHAVIORAL TRANSFER FUNCTION: WHITE‐NOISE ANALYSIS OF SESSION‐TO‐SESSION RESPONSE‐RATIO DYNAMICS ON CONCURRENT VI VI SCHEDULES
Authors: Hunter Ian , Davison Michael
Published: March 2006

Six pigeons were exposed to concurrent variable‐interval schedules in which the programmed reinforcer ratios changed from session to session according to a pseudorandom binary sequence. This procedure corresponded to the stochastic identification paradigm (“white‐noise experiment”) of systems theory and enabled the relation between log response ratios in the current session and log reinforcer ratios in all previous sessions to be determined. Such dynamic relations are called linear transfer functions. Both non‐parametric and parametric representations of these, in the form of “impulse‐response functions,” were determined for each bird. The session‐to‐session response ratios resulting from the session‐to‐session pseudorandom binary variations in reinforcer ratios were well predicted by the impulse‐response functions identified for each pigeon. The impulse‐response functions were well fitted by a second‐order dynamic model involving only two parameters: a time constant and a gain. The mean time constant was 0.67 sessions, implying that the effects of abrupt changes in log reinforcer ratios should be 96% complete within about five sessions. The mean gain was 0.53, which was surprisingly low inasmuch as it should equal the sensitivity to reinforcement ratio observed under steady‐state conditions. The same six pigeons were subjected to a similar experiment 10 months following the first. Despite individual differences in impulse‐response functions between birds within each experiment, the impulse‐response functions determined from the two experiments were essentially the same.
MOLECULAR MAXIMIZING CHARACTERIZES CHOICE ON VAUGHAN'S (1981) PROCEDURE
Authors: Silberberg Alan , Ziriax John M.
Published: March 2006

Pigeons keypecked on a two‐key procedure in which their choice ratios during one time period determined the reinforcement rates assigned to each key during the next period (Vaughan, 1981). During each of four phases, which differed in the reinforcement rates they provided for different choice ratios, the duration of these periods was four minutes, duplicating one condition from Vaughan's study. During the other four phases, these periods lasted six seconds. When these periods were long, the results were similar to Vaughan's and appeared compatible with melioration theory. But when these periods were short, the data were consistent with molecular maximizing (see Silberberg & Ziriax, 1982) and were incompatible with melioration, molar maximizing, and matching. In a simulation, stat birds following a molecular‐maximizing algorithm responded on the short‐ and long‐period conditions of this experiment. When the time periods lasted four minutes, the results were similar to Vaughan's and to the results of the four‐minute conditions of this study; when the time periods lasted six seconds, the choice data were similar to the data from real subjects for the six‐second conditions. Thus, a molecular‐maximizing response rule generated choice data comparable to those from the short‐ and long‐period conditions of this experiment. These data show that, among extant accounts, choice on the Vaughan procedure is most compatible with molecular maximizing.
REACTION TIMES OF YOUNGER AND OLDER MEN: EFFECTS OF COMPOUND SAMPLES AND A PRECHOICE SIGNAL ON DELAYED MATCHING‐TO‐SAMPLE PERFORMANCES
Authors: Baron Alan , Menich Stephen R.
Published: March 2006

Five younger (18 to 23 yrs) and five older (65 to 73 yrs) men were exposed to a series of immediate and delayed (0 to 15 seconds) matching‐to‐sample problems. Presentation of the pairs of delayed comparison stimuli was either signaled or unsignaled, and the sample contained either 1, 2, or 3 elements, one of which appeared as the positive stimulus. During initial sessions, unlimited time was available to respond. Subsequently, correct responses were reinforced only if they occurred within a specified time limit. A general finding was slower responding with increased delay and with increased number of sample elements. These effects were reduced when the comparison stimuli were signaled and when time limits were in effect. Errors increased as a function of the manipulations of sample complexity and time limits, but did not change systematically when the delay between sample and comparison stimuli was varied. Although the younger men generally responded more quickly than the older ones, men of both ages showed increased speeds when limits were placed on response time, and these changes were maintained when the temporal contingencies were removed.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FORGETTING FUNCTIONS IN DELAYED MATCHING TO SAMPLE
Authors: White K. Geoffrey
Published: March 2006

Performance of pigeons in delayed matching‐to‐sample procedures was measured in terms of an index of discriminability derived from the difference between logarithms of ratios of choice responses to comparison stimuli following the different sample stimuli. Forgetting functions that plotted discriminability as a function of delay‐interval duration were well described by a simple negative exponential function with two parameters, one describing initial discriminability of sample stimuli at zero delay (log d0) and the other describing rate of decrement in discriminability with increasing delay‐interval duration (b). With the difference between wavelength values of the comparison stimuli held constant, a large difference between wavelengths of the sample stimuli resulted in a higher log d0 value than that for a small difference between sample stimuli, without changing the rate of decrement in discriminability, b. An increase in the fixed‐ratio requirement for sample‐key responding produced an increase in log d0 without affecting b, and interpolation of ambient illumination in the delay interval increased b without influencing log d0. Both parameters changed when intertrial‐interval duration was varied. The result of variation in the point of interpolation of ambient illumination in the delay interval indicated that levels of discriminability at longer delays were independent of discriminability levels at earlier delays, consistent with the properties of the exponential function. Functions relating performance to delay‐interval duration were suggested to have two characteristics: discriminability of the sample stimuli in the absence of a delay between the stimuli and the behavior they occasion, and rate of attenuation in discriminability with increasing delay‐interval duration.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT EFFECTS ON BEHAVIOR IN A THREE‐PERSON MICROSOCIETY
Authors: Emurian Henry H. , Emurian Cleeve S. , Brady Joseph V.
Published: March 2006

Three‐person groups, either of males or of females, resided for 6 to 12 days in a continuously programmed environment. Subjects followed a behavioral program that determined the sequential and contingent relations within an inventory of activities. The program consisted of positive reinforcement days and avoidance days. During a positive reinforcement day, each work unit completed by a subject incremented a group account. The account was divided evenly among the three participants at the conclusion of the study. During a negative reinforcement day, no money was earned, and the group was assigned a work unit criterion that, if completed, prevented a reduction in accumulated earnings. During negative reinforcement days, subjects made aggressive verbal responses, which differed in magnitude among the four groups. These differences were evident in several distinct behavioral measures. Performances on components of the work unit were not demonstrably affected by the reinforcement schedules in effect, although during the avoidance condition one subject stopped working and another subject's productivity declined.
TEMPORAL PROXIMITY AND REINFORCEMENT SENSITIVITY IN MULTIPLE SCHEDULES
Authors: White K. Geoffrey , Pipe Margaret‐Ellen , McLean Anthony P. , Redman Selina
Published: March 2006

Distributions of reinforcers between two components of multiple variable‐interval schedules were varied over a number of conditions. Sensitivity to reinforcement, measured by the exponent of the power function relating ratios of responses in the two components to ratios of reinforcers obtained in the components, did not differ between conditions with 15‐s or 60‐s component durations. The failure to demonstrate the “short‐component effect,” where sensitivity is high for short components, was consistent with reanalysis of previous data. With 60‐s components, sensitivity to reinforcement decreased systematically with time since component alternation, and was higher in the first 15‐s subinterval of the 60‐s component than for the component whose total duration was 15 s. Varying component duration and sampling behavior at different times since component transition may not be equivalent ways of examining the effects of average temporal distance between components.
SPATIOTEMPORAL PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR PRODUCED BY VARIABLE‐INTERVAL SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT
Authors: Pear Joseph J.
Published: March 2006

The spatiotemporal patterns of behavior exhibited by two pigeons during a variable‐interval 15‐second schedule of food reinforcement, a variable‐interval 5‐minute schedule, and then extinction of key pecking were recorded using an apparatus that continuously tracked the position of the bird in the experimental chamber. The variable‐interval 15‐second schedule produced a close‐to‐key pattern between reinforcements with two types of regular excursions from the region of the key frequently occurring after reinforcement. Subsequent exposure to the variable‐interval 5‐minute schedule produced more extended and extremely regular patterns between responses. Reinstatement of the variable‐interval 15‐second schedule reestablished the close‐to‐key pattern with regular excursions frequently occurring after reinforcement. During extinction the spatiotemporal patterns that had developed during the variable‐interval 5‐minute schedule reappeared and gradually dissipated. These patterns may have been a form of superstitious behavior.
THE BASIS OF SUPERSTITIOUS BEHAVIOR: CHANCE CONTINGENCY, STIMULUS SUBSTITUTION, OR APPETITIVE BEHAVIOR?
Authors: Timberlake William , Lucas Gary A.
Published: March 2006

This research examined three explanations for the “superstitious” behavior of pigeons under frequent fixed‐time delivery of food: accidental response‐reward contingency, stimulus substitution, and elicited species‐typical appetitive behavior. The behavior observed in these studies consisted of occasional postfood locomotion away from the food hopper, and a predominant pattern of activity directed toward the hopper wall (wall‐directed behavior), including approaching, stepping side to side, scratching with the feet, bumping with the breast, pendulum movements of the extended neck, and head bobbing, thoughnotpecking. The consistency of these behavior patterns argued against explanation by accidental response contingencies, and the complexity of behavior was incompatible with the classic stimulus‐substitution account. These studies also showed that: (1) response contingencies and prior stimulus experience can modify wall‐directed behavior, but within definable limits; (2) pecking sometimes can be obtained in birds of specific strains, and by providing extended training; (3) placing the hopper in the floor at the center of a large chamber replaces wall‐directed behavior with circling in a manner that resembles ground foraging for food. We conclude that superstitious behavior under periodic delivery of food probably develops from components of species‐typical patterns of appetitive behavior related to feeding. These patterns are elicited by a combination of frequent food presentations and the supporting stimuli present in the environment.
DISCRIMINATED INTERRESPONSE TIMES: ROLE OF AUTOSHAPED RESPONSES
Authors: Palmer David C. , Donahoe John W. , Crowley Michael A.
Published: March 2006

When discriminated interresponse‐time (IRT) procedures have been used to assess preference relations among temporally extended operants, deviations from matching have been obtained. Using a yoked‐control procedure, the present study found that key pecking in a discriminated IRT procedure has two sources of strength—that arising from the response‐reinforcer contingency that is explicitly arranged, and that arising from a stimulus‐reinforcer contingency that is a by‐product of the explicitly arranged contingency. The key pecking of all lead birds, and that of 3 of the 4 birds exposed to a yoked autoshaping procedure, was controlled by the keylight that signaled the lead birds' criterion IRTs. Because stimulus control of key pecking by the keylight, whether autoshaped or discriminative, fosters deviations from matching, the discriminated IRT procedure does not provide an appropriate basis for conclusions about preference relations among IRTs.
SYMMETRY AND TRANSITIVITY OF CONDITIONAL RELATIONS IN MONKEYS (CEBUS APELLA) AND PIGEONS (COLUMBA LIVIA)
Authors: D'Amato M. R. , Salmon David P. , Loukas Eric , Tomie Art
Published: March 2006

In Experiment 1 six monkeys were tested with discriminative relations that were backward relative to their training in a 0‐second conditional (“symbolic”) matching procedure. Although there was some indication of backward associations, the evidence was generally weak, and statistical evaluations did not reach conventional significance levels. Unlike children, who show backward associations to the point of symmetry, monkeys and pigeons display at best only weak and transient backward associations. In Experiment 2 associative transitivity was assessed across two sets of conditional matching tasks. All four monkeys tested demonstrated strong transitivity. In contrast, in Experiment 3 there was no evidence of transitivity in three pigeons tested under conditions closely comparable to those of Experiment 2. These results may identify some key features of interspecies differences and contribute to analyses of serial learning in animals.
THE EFFECTS OF CHLORPROMAZINE AND IMIPRAMINE ON RATE AND STIMULUS CONTROL OF MATCHING TO SAMPLE
Authors: Newland M. Christopher , Marr M. Jackson
Published: March 2006

Pigeons were trained to perform simultaneous, two‐color matching to sample under a multiple fixed‐ratio fixed‐interval schedule of food presentation. The sequence terminating with a peck on the matching key (a “match”) was treated as a unit, analogous to a single key peck in conventional schedules. Except for intermittent reinforcement of matches, no consequent stimulus distinguished matches from mismatches (sequences terminating with pecks on the nonmatching key). The pattern of matches during nondrug sessions resembled that of simpler operants maintained by similar schedules. Matches increased in rate toward the end of both components; mismatch rates increased more slowly. Imipramine increased the rate of mismatches, disrupted schedule patterning, and lowered accuracy in a dose‐dependent fashion. Chlorpromazine lowered the overall rate of matches but affected schedule patterns and accuracy less than imipramine. The types of errors during drug sessions were not systematically related to the types of errors that appeared during nondrug sessions. Stimulus control was evaluated for each of the four possible color configurations and was found to be by the entire configuration of colors, not simply by the color of the sample.
CONTRIBUTIONS OF ELICITATION TO MEASURES OF SELF‐CONTROL
Authors: Lopatto David , Lewis Paul
Published: March 2006

Pigeons' not pecking or pecking constituted choice between a delayed, large reinforcer and an immediate, small reinforcer (self‐control) and at other times between a delayed reinforcer and no reinforcer (omission). Both a tone and a keylight were tested as choice signals, and the delayed reinforcer was either response independent or response dependent. Pigeons pecked during the choice signals on over 95% of the trials in the self‐control procedure, and pecked during the choice signals on over 75% of the trials in the omission procedure. Consistent pecking was observed with either the tone or the keylight as a choice signal, with the exception that a tone paired with a response‐independent delayed reinforcer did not maintain pecking in the omission procedure. Pigeons pecked during more choice signals when delayed reinforcers were response dependent than when the delayed reinforcers were response independent. These results indicate that Pavlovian conditioning influences self‐control experiments, especially in single‐key procedures.