bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
STIMULUS CONTROL AND AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION LEARNING SETS IN THE BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN1
Authors: Herman Louis M. , Arbeit William R.
Published: March 2006

The learning efficiency of an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin was evaluated using auditory discrimination learning‐set tasks. Efficiency, as measured by the probability of a correct response on Trial 2 of a new discrete‐trial, two‐choice auditory discrimination problem, reached levels comparable to those attained by advanced species of nonhuman primates. Runs of errorless problems in some cases rivaled those reported for individual rhesus monkeys in visual discrimination learning‐set tasks. This level of stimulus control of responses to new auditory discriminanda was attained through (a) the development of a sequential within‐trial method for presentation of a pair of auditory discriminanda; (b) the extensive use of fading methods to train initial discriminations, followed by the fade‐out of the use of fading; (c) the development of listening behavior through control of the animal's responses during projection of the auditory discriminanda; and (d) the use of highly discriminable auditory stimuli, by applying results of a parametric evaluation of discriminability of selected acoustic variables. Learning efficiency was tested using a cueing method on Trial 1 of each new discrimination, to allow the animal to identify the positive stimulus before its response. Efficiency was also tested with the more common blind baiting method, in which the Trial 1 response was reinforced on only a random half of the problems. Efficiency was high for both methods. The overall results were generally in keeping with exceptations of learning capacity based on the large size and high degree of cortical complexity of the brain of the bottlenose dolphin.
AUDIT RESPONSES: RESPONSES MAINTAINED BY ACCESS TO EXISTING SELF OR COACTOR SCORES DURING NON‐SOCIAL, PARALLEL WORK, AND COOPERATION PROCEDURES1
Authors: Hake Don F. , Vukelich Ron , Kaplan Sheldon J.
Published: March 2006

Human subjects, mostly between 11 and 16 yr old, matched to sample for points that were exchangeable for money. An audit response was defined as a response maintained by allowing a subject access to an existing score on his own (self audit) or a coactor's (coactor audit) performance. In Experiment I, changes from non‐social procedures (no coactor) to social procedures (coactor present) increased self and coactor audits. Since both types of audits occurred at about the same rates during cooperation and parallel work procedures, the increases did not depend on the subjects' response interactions. Although Experiment I did not demonstrate that subjects were comparing scores, the frequent occurrence of each kind of audit within a brief time period (interpersonal audit) did indicate that it was reinforcing to have both scores at the same time. These interpersonal audits suggested that the coactor's score increased self audits during social procedures. Experiment II supported this notion: relative to a non‐social procedure, self audits increased more during a parallel work procedure when the coactor's score was accessible than when it was not accessible. Thus, increases in other behaviors that occur in the presence of a coactor, i.e., social facilitation, may also result from or be increased by providing a coactor's score.
EFFECTS OF CHOICE AND IMMEDIACY OF REINFORCEMENT ON SINGLE RESPONSE AND SWITCHING BEHAVIOR OF CHILDREN1
Authors: Brigham Thomas A. , Sherman James A.
Published: March 2006

Children responded on a single operandum to produce marbles or candy within a two‐component multiple schedule and then were allowed to choose which component was in effect. Experiment I examined the effects of exchanging marbles after sessions for subject‐selected or experimenter‐selected candy. Rate of response to the single operandum was not affected. However, when the subjects could switch components, they spent the majority of time and responded at somewhat higher rates in a component where marbles were exchangable for subject‐selected candy. Experiment II examined the effects of eliminating the immediate marble consequence for responses. Rate of response to the single operandum was not affected. However, when subjects could switch components they spent more time in a component where immediate marble consequences were available for responses, than where no immediate marble consequences were available.
BEHAVIORAL AFTEREFFECTS OF REINFORCEMENT AND ITS OMISSION AS A FUNCTION OF REINFORCEMENT MAGNITUDE1
Authors: Jensen Craig , Fallon Daniel
Published: March 2006

Rats responded on a multiple fixed‐interval fixed‐interval schedule of reinforcement. Each complete cycle of the multiple schedule was separated from the next by a relatively long period of timeout from all schedule contingencies. A response at the end of the second component of each cycle was always reinforced with an invariant reinforcement magnitude, while reinforcement magnitude and reinforcement omission were systematically varied in the first component. Response rate in the first component was a monotonic function of reinforcement magnitude in that component. These changes in response rate in the first component did not affect response rate in the second component. When reinforcement was omitted on 50% of occasions in the first component, following reinforcement there was a reduction in response rate in the second component that was monotonically related to reinforcement magnitude. Following reinforcement omission there was an increase in response rate in the second component that was unrelated to reinforcement magnitude. When reinforcement was omitted on 100% of occasions in the first component, behavioral contrast was observed.
SEQUENTIAL DEPENDENCIES IN FREE‐RESPONDING1
Authors: Shimp Charles P.
Published: March 2006

Three pigeons pecked for food in an experiment in which reinforcements were arranged for responses terminating sequences of interresponse times. Each reinforced interresponse time belonged to a class extending either from 1.0 to 2.0 sec (class A) or from 3.0 to 4.5 sec (class B). Reinforcements were arranged by a single variable‐interval schedule and a random device that assigned each reinforcement to one of four sequences of two successive interresponse times: AA, AB, BA, or BB. Throughout the experiment, half of the reinforcements were delivered for interresponse times in class A and half for those in class B. Over conditions, the interresponse time preceding a reinforced interresponse time always, half of the time, or never, belonged to class A. The duration of the interresponse time preceding a reinforced one had a pronounced effect on response patterning. It also had a pronounced effect on the overall response probability, which was highest, intermediate, and lowest, when the interresponse time preceding a reinforced interresponse time always, half of the time, or never, belonged to class A, respectively. In no case were successive interresponse times independent, so that overall response probability was not representative of momentary response probabilities.
KEY PECKING UNDER RESPONSE‐INDEPENDENT FOOD PRESENTATION AFTER LONG SIMPLE AND COMPOUND STIMULI1
Authors: Ricci John A.
Published: March 2006

Sixteen pigeons were trained to peck a key using a response‐independent (auto‐shaping) procedure of food presentation. The 4‐sec grain presentations were independent of responding but a keylight stimulus preceded each, with a 4‐min interval between the grain presentation and the next stimulus. Subjects were divided into four groups, with two durations of the keylight (30 or 120 sec) and either one or four successive colors on the response key preceding food delivery. In Phase 2, the birds were continued with the same keylight duration but were presented the alternative number of key colors. All pigeons pecked the key during the stimulus. Birds in the two groups with the 30‐sec stimulus duration began to respond significantly sooner than birds with the 120‐sec duration. There were no significant differences in rate of pecking between groups by the last five days of Phase 1. In Phase 1, the pigeons exposed to the four stimulus components showed an increase in rate of pecking over the four components as grain presentation approached. The pigeons with one stimulus component did not exhibit this regularity. Analogous conditions in Phase 2 had similar results except for one group. The implications of the occurrence of key pecking due to response‐independent food delivery for multiple and chained schedules were pointed out.
CONDITIONED SUPPRESSION OF COUNTING BEHAVIOR IN RATS1
Authors: Blackman D. E. , Scruton Pamela
Published: March 2006

Three rats were trained on a schedule in which a response on lever B was reinforced only if it was preceded by a minimum number of consecutive responses on lever A. The minimum requirement was 27 A responses for Rat 1, and 20 A responses for Rats 2 and 3. The schedule maintained high rates of responding on lever A, and a slow, spaced pattern of responding on lever B. The mean number of consecutive responses on lever A was slightly greater than the minimum required. The effect of superimposing on this behavior a stimulus that ended with an unavoidable shock was the suppression of responding on both levers during the pre‐shock stimulus. Responses on lever A were more suppressed, and the proportion of relatively short response runs on lever A during the pre‐shock stimulus increased. With all three rats, the mean number of consecutive responses on lever A during the pre‐shock stimulus decreased to a value below the minimum requirement for reinforcement of the subsequent B response.
AN OPERANT DISCRIMINATION TASK ALLOWING VARIABILITY OF REINFORCED RESPONSE PATTERNING1
Authors: Vogel Richard , Annau Zoltan
Published: March 2006

Five pigeons were trained to perform a discrimination task allowing variability of reinforced response patterning. The task consisted of moving a stimulus light within an 4 × 4 matrix of lights from the top left position to the bottom right position by pecking on two keys in succession in order to obtain a reinforcement. A peck on one key moved the light one position to the right and a peck on the other key moved it one position down. After preliminary training on alternating fixed‐ratio 3 schedules of reinforcement, the birds could peck on either key in any order, but more than three responses on a key resulted in a blackout followed by the return of the stimulus light to the start position. Results indicate that initially the birds used a wide variety of response patterns to obtain reinforcement, but with continued practice, response patterns became more stereotyped.
BIO RHYTHMS IN THE ACTIVITY OF CHILDREN DURING FREE PLAY1
Authors: Wade M. G. , Ellis M. J. , Bohrer R. E.
Published: March 2006

The interaction between the arousal to action of environmental stimuli and recovery from that activity was presumed to generate biorhythms in the activity level of children. The level of environmental stimuli was manipulated by varying the play‐group size and the apparatus, and higher environmental complexity was expected to produce more pronounced rhythms. The heart rates of 16 subjects playing in monad, dyad, and tetrad group sizes, in two playroom configurations, were monitored and spectral analysis used to locate significant biorhythms. There was a tendency toward 40‐min (slow frequency) and 15‐min (fast frequency) biorhythms. The group size manipulation produced the strongest biorhythmic behavior in the dyadic groups. Apparatus differences were not significant but the configuration containing a minimum quantity of play apparatus produced more variable activity than the configuration containing a large amount of play apparatus.
FIXED‐RATIO AND VARIABLE‐RATIO SCHEDULES OF BRIEF STIMULI IN SECOND‐ORDER SCHEDULES OF MATCHING TO SAMPLE1
Authors: Boren M. C. P.
Published: March 2006

Eight pigeons matched to sample under second‐order schedules of food reinforcement. Under fixed‐interval unit schedules, the first correct match to occur after a given period of time was followed by the presentation of a brief stimulus. The termination of the last fixed‐interval unit schedule was followed by food according to second‐order fixed‐ratio and variable‐ratio schedules. In Experiment 1, as the number of fixed‐interval unit schedules increased, long pauses occurred under the second‐order fixed‐ratio schedules, but not under the variable‐ratio schedules. The similarity of performance measures such as local rate and accuracy indicated that the differences engendered by these two types of schedule are in the duration of the periods of not‐responding. In Experiment 2, the addition of a brief stimulus at the end of each unit schedule in chained schedules that had different discriminative stimuli present for the duration of each unit did not substantially affect the performance, and long pauses continued to occur. However, few long pauses occurred under schedules with brief stimulus presentations alone. The most inaccurate performances were engendered by chained schedules without brief stimuli.
THE FAILURE OF STIMULUS CONTROL AFTER PRESENCE‐ABSENCE DISCRIMINATION OF CLICK‐RATE1
Authors: Williams Ben A.
Published: March 2006

Pigeons were trained to discriminate a slow click‐rate from its absence, or to discriminate it from a faster click‐rate. Subsequent click‐rate generalization tests produced the usual steepened gradients after the intradimensional discrimination but produced flat gradients after presence/absence discrimination. The occurrence of stimulus control only after intradimensional discrimination, combined with previous results showing stimulus control sometimes after nondifferential reinforcement and sometimes after presence/absence discrimination, argues for a reformulation of the problem of stimulus control. A theoretical framework, relying upon blocking effects inherent in the different discrimination procedures, was presented to account for the diversity of results.
CHOICE OF A TERMINATING OVER A NON‐TERMINATING SIGNAL IN FREE‐OPERANT AVOIDANCE
Authors: Culbertson Stuart , Badia Pietro
Published: March 2006

Rats chose between two signalled avoidance schedules. Under one schedule, responses in the presence of the signal terminated it and resulted in avoidance of shock; in the other, responses in the presence of the signal resulted in shock avoidance but signal termination was delayed for 10 sec. Pressing a second (changeover) lever produced change from one schedule to the other for 1 min. Once this 1‐min period timed out, subjects could remain under the schedule in effect or could reinstate the other schedule for another 1‐min period. All four subjects continuously changed over from the non‐terminating to the terminating signal schedule. Changeover responding was not maintained when the termination contingency was removed. When changeover responding resulted in a change from a terminating to a non‐terminating signal schedule, changeover responding did not occur.
BEHAVIORAL CONTRAST AND INHIBITORY STIMULUS CONTROL AS RELATED TO EXTENDED TRAINING
Authors: Selekman Warren
Published: March 2006

Pigeons received discrimination training in which the presence of a white field was correlated with variable‐interval reinforcement and the presence of a monochromatic field was correlated with extinction. Responses during the negative stimulus prolonged its duration. Five experimental groups each received a different number of discrimination sessions up to 70 sessions. The last session was followed by a wavelength generalization test. The control group was tested both before and after four discrimination sessions. Responding to the positive training stimulus was enhanced in all groups by the discrimination procedures. This enhancement tended to decrease over sessions in some animals but it never disappeared in others. Responding to the test stimuli preceding discrimination training was minimal around the negative stimulus and increased in either direction away from that wavelength. Responding to the test stimuli was not systematically related to the amount of discrimination training.
THE EFFECT OF OVERTRAINING ON BEHAVIORAL CONTRAST AND THE PEAK‐SHIFT1
Authors: Dukhayyil Abdulaziz , Lyons Joseph E.
Published: March 2006

Following initial discrimination training between two wavelength stimuli and a subsequent generalization test to the wavelength dimension, Group 1 was “overtrained” for 105 days on the original discrimination. Group 2 was “overtrained” with the original positive stimulus and a new negative stimulus, a white line. Group 3 was “overtrained” with the original negative stimulus and a new positive stimulus, the white line. Each 15 days of extended training were followed by a wavelength generalization test similar to the first test. The results suggest that there is no consistent relationship between the response rate in positive stimulus immediately before the generalization test and whether or not a peak shift occurs during the test.
RESPONSE‐REINFORCER DEPENDENCE AND INDEPENDENCE IN MULTIPLE AND MIXED SCHEDULES
Authors: Lattal Kennon A.
Published: March 2006

Albino rats were conditioned to lever press during two‐component multiple and mixed schedules in which response‐dependent and response‐independent reinforcers occurred in the different components. Relative response rates in the components associated with response‐dependent reinforcers were higher (a) when different visual and auditory stimuli were associated with the two components and (b) when mixed schedule components were long in duration. These results illustrate the contribution of the response‐reinforcer relation to stimulus control and schedule control of behavior. They also suggest that under some conditions, reinforcers need not be consistently associated with a particular response to ensure that the response is maintained at a relatively high rate.
A COMPARISON OF MEASURES OF RESPONDING UNDER FIXED‐INTERVAL SCHEDULES1
Authors: Dukich Thomas D. , Lee Andrew E.
Published: March 2006

Average response rate, post‐reinforcement pause, elapsed time to the fourth response, average quarter‐life, and running rate were examined to see how they reflected changes in fixed‐interval performance. Rats were exposed to a mixed schedule of water presentation comprising fixed‐interval schedules of two durations. Changes in responding were produced by varying the duration of the shorter component. The five measures were derived only from the longer schedule component. Post‐reinforcement pause, elapsed time to the fourth response in the interval, and quarter‐life all showed high, positive inter‐correlations (0.78 < r < 0.99). Running rate and post‐reinforcement pause were not as highly correlated. Quarter‐life reliably reflected changes in fixed‐interval performance but changes in the quarter‐life value did not necessarily result from similar changes in fixed‐interval response pattern. The two measures that adequately described changes in response patterning were post‐reinforcement pause and running rate. These two measures also had the advantage of being simple both computationally and in terms of the instrumentation involved in their recording.
SIGNALLED REINFORCEMENT IN MULTIPLE AND CONCURRENT SCHEDULES1
Authors: Wilkie Donald M.
Published: March 2006

Five pigeons were exposed to multiple and concurrent variable‐interval, variable‐interval reinforcement schedules in which reinforcement availability in one component was never signalled. During certain phases of the experiment, reinforcement availability in the other component was signalled. Behavioral contrast was observed in seven of eight instances when reinforcement availability in the multiple schedules was signalled. Under the concurrent schedules in which reinforcement availability was signalled, the subjects did not always allocate more time to (prefer) the component containing non‐signalled reinforcement, as would be predicted by an account of behavioral contrast holding that contrast results from the introduction of a less‐preferred condition in one component of a multiple schedule.
DRUGS AND PUNISHED RESPONDING II: d‐AMPHETAMINE‐INDUCED INCREASES IN PUNISHED RESPONDING1
Authors: Foree D. D. , Moretz F. H. , McMillan D. E.
Published: March 2006

The effects of d‐amphetamine on punished responding were studied in two experiments. In Experiment I, pigeons responded under a multiple fixed‐ratio 30 response fixed‐interval 5‐min schedule of food presentation with 60‐sec limited holds in both components. Each response was punished with electric shock, the intensity of which was varied systematically. In Experiment II, another group of pigeons responded under a multiple fixed‐interval 5‐min fixed‐interval 5‐min schedule of food presentation with 40‐sec limited holds. Each response was punished with shock during one component, and every thirtieth response was punished in the other component. d‐Amphetamine increased overall rates of punished responding only rarely under any of the punishment conditions; however, response rates within the fixed‐interval when rates were low were increased by d‐amphetamine when the shock intensity was low (Experiment I), or when responses produced shock intermittently (Experiment II). The data suggest that the effects of d‐amphetamine on punished responding depend on the control rate of responding, the punishment intensity, the punishment frequency, and the schedule of food presentation.
OPERANT RESPONDING IN SIAMESE FIGHTING FISH (BETTA SPLENDENS) AS A FUNCTION OF SCHEDULE OF REINFORCEMENT AND VISUAL REINFORCERS1
Authors: Turnbough P. Diane , Lloyd Kenneth E.
Published: March 2006

Siamese fighting fish were trained to emit an operant response that was reinforced by the opportunity to view a motion picture film image of another fish. Performance under various schedules of reinforcement was examined. When reinforcement followed every response and when reinforcement was delivered after every second response, the number of responses per session was higher than during operant level or during extinction. Reinforcement delivered following intervals of no responding (differential reinforcement of other behavior) markedly decreased responding. Light from a projector without film was found to be as effective a reinforcer as film reinforcement. Responding when projector light reinforcement followed every response was maintained at approximately the same level as that obtained under film reinforcement. Responses per session decreased when only the light was delivered on a differential‐reinforcement‐of‐other‐behavior schedule. The behavior of the fish during presentation of the film was markedly different from their behavior while the projector light was being presented.
SUPPRESSION OF RANDOM‐RATIO AND ACCELERATION OF TEMPORALLY SPACED RESPONDING BY THE SAME PREREWARD STIMULUS IN MONKEYS1
Authors: Kelly Dennis D.
Published: March 2006

A 1‐min tone and light signal that preceded two free pellets of food suppressed the random‐ratio responding of four rhesus monkeys, but accelerated the same subjects' responding on a differential‐reinforcement‐of‐low‐rate schedule in separate sessions. Both schedule‐specific interactions occurred during the first presentations of the signal that previously had been paired with food outside the operant sessions. Thus, neither effect was adventitiously produced. In two subjects, both the direction and magnitude of the prereward change in differential‐reinforcement‐of‐low‐rate responding appeared related to baseline response rates: the more rapid the baseline responding, the less was the acceleration during the signal. Suppression and acceleration did not appear as dichotomous effects with separate parameters, but as related effects at least partly determined by the characteristics of the baseline operant performance.
SUPPRESSION OF OPERANT BEHAVIOR AND SCHEDULE‐INDUCED LICKING IN RATS1
Authors: Bond N. W. , Blackman D. E. , Scruton Pamela
Published: March 2006

The first experiment studied the effects of punishment on rats' lever pressing maintained by a fixed‐interval schedule of food reinforcement and on the associated schedule‐induced licking. When licking was followed by shock, licking was suppressed but lever pressing was largely unaffected. When lever pressing was followed by shock, lever pressing was suppressed but licking was unaffected. In both cases, the punished behavior recovered its previous unpunished level when the shocks were discontinued. In a second experiment, the rats' lever pressing was maintained by a variable‐interval schedule of food reinforcement under which polydipsic licking also developed. Both lever pressing and licking were partially suppressed during a stimulus correlated with occasional unavoidable electric shocks. With a higher shock intensity, both behaviors were suppressed further. Both lever pressing and licking recovered their previous levels when shocks were discontinued. These results show that schedule‐induced licking, which has been described as adjunctive behavior, can be suppressed by procedures that suppress reinforced lever pressing, an operant behavior.
PREFERENCE FOR FIXED‐INTERVAL SCHEDULES: AN ALTERNATIVE MODEL1
Authors: Davison M. C. , Temple W.
Published: March 2006

Pigeons were trained under concurrent chain schedules in which the initial links were equal aperiodic schedules and the terminal links were fixed‐interval schedules. Choice proportions in the initial links were measured in 26 experimental conditions. The data showed the inadequacy of previous models of concurrent chain performance. A new model was suggested in which choice is a joint function of terminal‐link times, overall reinforcement rates, and terminal‐link entries. This model accounted for 94% of the variance in the present data and for substantial percentages of the variance in previously reported data. The model simplifies to matching between response ratios and obtained reinforcement rate ratios for simple concurrent schedule performance.
APPLICATION OF A GRADED CHOICE PROCEDURE TO OBTAIN ERRORLESS LEARNING IN CHILDREN
Authors: Storm Richard H. , Robinson Paul W.
Published: March 2006

A simultaneous, two‐choice color discrimination was carried out with three groups of four‐ to seven‐year‐old children. For Groups I and II, the opportunity to respond to the incorrect stimulus was controlled (graded) over three different conditions. First, only a red light (S+) and its retractable bar were presented (16 trials for Group I and 316 trials for Group II). Second, a green light (S—) was added with its correlated bar retracted for 14 trials. Third, 40 trials were given with both stimuli on and their correlated retractable bars extended. The opportunity to respond to S— was not graded for Group III children. They experienced only the third condition applied to Groups I and II. Responses to S+ were reinforced for all three groups, while responses to S— were not. Children in the first two groups made from zero to three responses to S—, while the control children emitted 11 to 46 errors. The results demonstrate that fading in S— or presenting S— early in the training procedure are sufficient, but not necessary conditions for errorless learning.
SECOND‐ORDER SCHEDULES: A COMPARISON OF CHAINED, BRIEF‐STIMULUS, AND TANDEM PROCEDURES1
Authors: Malagodi E. F. , DeWeese Jo , Johnston James M.
Published: March 2006

Pigeons were exposed to seven types of two‐component schedules, each component a 2‐min fixed‐interval schedule. Food presentation occurred at the completion of the second component under all conditions. The seven types of schedules were: (1) a chained schedule in which completion of the first component produced the discriminative stimulus associated with the second component; (2) a chained schedule to which was added the brief presentation of a food‐paired stimulus at the completion of the first component; (3) a chained schedule to which was added the brief presentation of a stimulus not paired with food at the completion of the first component; (4) a multiple schedule in which food presentation occurred at the completion of both components; (5) a tandem schedule in which completion of the first component initiated the second component, with no changes in exteroceptive stimuli; (6) a food‐paired brief‐stimulus schedule in which the brief presentation of a food‐paired stimulus was made at the completion of the first component and no other changes in stimuli occurred; and (7) a brief‐stimulus schedule in which the brief presentation of a stimulus not paired with food was made at the completion of the first component and no other changes in stimuli occurred. Positively accelerated patterns of responding developed in the first component under three conditions: (1) the chained schedule with the added food‐paired brief stimulus; (2) the multiple schedule; and (3) the food‐paired brief‐stimulus schedule. Response rates were low in the first component, with few instances of positively accelerated patterns, under two conditions: (1) the chained schedule; and (2) the chained schedule with the added nonpaired brief stimulus. The results suggest that a briefly presented food‐paired stimulus may function as a more effective conditioned reinforcer than does the presentation of a discriminative stimulus.
REINFORCER EFFECTIVENESS AS A FUNCTION OF REINFORCER RATE AND MAGNITUDE: A COMPARISON OF CONCURRENT PERFORMANCES1
Authors: Schneider J. W.
Published: March 2006

Pigeons' pecks on each of two concurrently available response keys were reinforced under a variable‐interval schedule that sometimes allotted food‐pellet deliveries to one key and sometimes to the other. The keys differed in the number of reinforcements assigned to each and in the number of pellets delivered during each reinforcement. When the total quantity of food associated with each key during a session was constant, the proportion of responses to a key depended on the particular combinations of reinforcer rate and reinforcer magnitude scheduled on each key. A given quantity of food generated more responding on a key when it was delivered frequently in small amounts than when it was delivered infrequently in large amounts.
STIMULUS CONTROL IN A TWO‐CHOICE DISCRIMINATION PROCEDURE1
Authors: Galloway W. D.
Published: March 2006

The relation between performance during discriminative training and subsequently obtained measures of stimulus control was investigated. Pigeons served as experimental subjects. In the discriminative training phase, a single peck on the center key, transilluminated by a bright or dim white light, resulted in the onset of the side keys, one red and one green. If the center key was brightly lighted, a response on the red side key was correct. A response on the green side key was correct if the center key was dimly lighted. Correct responses were reinforced on independently arranged variable‐interval schedules. Following discriminative training, tests of stimulus control were administered during which white light of 11 intensities was projected on the center key and responses on the red and green side keys recorded. The proportion of correct responses in the presence of a bright or dim center‐key stimulus decreased with decreases in the frequency of reinforcement of correct red or correct green responses, respectively. The slopes of the stimulus control gradients were related to the extent of response bias during training. The greater the bias to respond on the green key, the flatter the gradient showing the proportion of green‐key responses to each stimulus and the steeper the corresponding gradient of red‐key responses.
INTERACTIONS IN MULTIPLE SCHEDULES WITH DIFFERENT RESPONSES IN EACH OF THE COMPONENTS1
Authors: Scull John , Westbrook R. F.
Published: March 2006

Pigeons were exposed to multiple schedules in which a key was lit in one component and a bar was present in the other. Ten subjects were trained to peck the key and to press the bar with their feet, and four subjects were trained to peck both the bar and the key. After a period of exposure to variable‐interval reinforcement in both components, subjects were exposed to extinction in one component. Only one of the 10 pigeons in the key‐peck:bar‐press condition showed an increase in rate in the other component, while seven of them showed a decrease. In the key‐peck:bar‐peck condition, three of the four subjects showed positive contrast. The data suggest that a condition for contrast to occur is that topographically similar behaviors be required in both components of the multiple schedule.
COMPOUNDING OF DISCRIMINATIVE STIMULI THAT MAINTAIN RESPONDING ON SEPARATE RESPONSE LEVERS1
Authors: Miller Laurence
Published: March 2006

In Experiment 1, rats' responses were reinforced on a fixed‐interval 30‐sec schedule in the presence of either a light or a tone and were not reinforced in their absence. Each stimulus was correlated with its own response lever, with only one lever present during a session. When light and tone were compounded in the presence of the tone‐correlated lever, no change in responding occurred. However, when tone was compounded with light in the presence of the light‐correlated lever, level of responding was greater than to light alone (response summation). Summation was also found when each stimulus was correlated with the same lever. Next, light and tone were again correlated with separate levers, but both levers were always simultaneously present. Compounding produced both summation and emission of most responses on the light‐correlated lever. This prepotency of light was reduced (1) by leaving a houselight on throughout the session; and (2) by correlating each stimulus with a different schedule (either fixed‐interval 4.7‐sec or fixed‐interval 30‐sec). With a medium‐ and high‐intensity houselight and with the different reinforcement schedules, similar results were obtained during compounding, regardless of whether compounding occurred in the presence of the light‐ or tone‐correlated lever.
ATTENTION AND “VISUAL FIELD DEPENDENCY” IN THE PIGEON1
Authors: Wilkie Donald M.
Published: March 2006

Three pigeons were trained in an upright conditioning chamber to peck a key transilluminated by a vertical line. This training was followed by a line orientation generalization test. During the test, the chamber was tilted laterally 22.5 degrees from upright. The chamber floor remained horizontal with respect to gravity. Under these conditions, the subjects responded more often in the presence of a visually vertical (parallel to chamber walls) line orientation than in the presence of a gravitationally vertical line orientation. Subsequent reinforcement of pecking in the presence of a line that was always gravitationally vertical but not always visually vertical temporarily abolished this “visual field dependency” and resulted in generalization gradients with peak responding in the presence of the gravitationally vertical line orientation. The results are discussed in terms of selective attention to the gravitational and visual components of line orientation.
EFFECTS OF TWO PROCEDURES FOR VARYING INFORMATION TRANSMISSION ON OBSERVING RESPONSES1
Authors: Kendall Stephen B.
Published: March 2006

Two experiments were conducted with pigeons to examine the effects of procedures that varied information transmission on observing responses. The basic procedure for Experiment I was one in which a trial terminated in either non‐contingent reinforcement or timeout. Pecking during a trial produced either green (positive) or red (negative) keylights. If no pecking occurred no differential stimuli appeared. The probability of positive trials was either 0.25, 0.50, or 0.75. Observing response rates and relative frequencies of occurrence were highest when the probability of positive trials was 0.25 and lowest at 0.75. In Experiment II, a modified chain procedure was used in which responding produced either red or green lights. Reinforcement or timeout followed light onset by 15 sec. The correlation between the stimuli and the event at the end of the trial (reinforcement or timeout) was varied. Reinforcement followed green 100%, 90%, 70%, or 50% of the time that green occurred. Since the overall probability of reinforcement remained at 0.50, reinforcement followed red in either 0%, 10%, 30%, or 50% of the time that it occurred. The rate of responses that produced these stimuli varied as a function of the correlation. The greater the probability of reinforcement after green, the higher the response rate.
“AUTOMAINTENANCE”: THE ROLE OF REINFORCEMENT1
Authors: Hursh Steven R. , Navarick Douglas J. , Fantino Edmund
Published: March 2006

A key was illuminated on the average of every 30 sec for a duration of 6 sec and this was followed by food presentations. When key pecks in the presence of the light produced immediate access to grain (autoshaping procedure) pigeons were likely to peck. When pecks terminated the keylight but prevented access to grain (automaintenance procedure) pigeons were much less likely to peck. Seven of 12 pigeons failed to develop responding during the automaintenance procedure. Four of the five pigeons that responded during the automaintenance procedure were exposed to a procedure in which responses could not immediately terminate the light. Three of the four ceased to respond during optimal automaintenance conditions, suggesting that the response‐dependent offset of the keylight had been reinforcing their pecking. Responding during the automaintenance procedure was eliminated for a fifth pigeon by eliminating the contiguity of light‐offset and food‐onset on those trials in which the pigeon did not peck. These results suggest that: (1) automaintenance (unlike autoshaping) is not an effective procedure for reliably generating responding; (2) responding that does occur during the automaintenance procedure is reinforced by the response‐dependent offset of the keylight.
THE EFFECTS OF REINFORCEMENT UPON THE PREPECKING BEHAVIORS OF PIGEONS IN THE AUTOSHAPING EXPERIMENT1
Authors: Wessells Michael G.
Published: March 2006

The autoshaping procedure confounds the effects of pairing a keylight and food with the effect of adventitious food reinforcement of responses that typically occur before the pecking response. In Experiment I, acquisition of the orientation to the key, the approach toward the key, and the peck at the key were systematically monitored. Orientations to the key and approaches toward the key frequently occurred in contiguity with food presentation before peck acquisition. In Experiment II, a negative contingency procedure was used to assess the sensitivity of the approach toward the key to its consequences. When the approach toward the key resulted in nonreinforcement, the probability of occurrence of that response decreased to zero despite repeated light‐food pairings. In Experiment III, peck probability was shown to be determined during the approach toward the key by the presence of stimuli that had previously been either paired or nonpaired with food. In Experiment IV, it was shown that the effects of the stimulus present during the approach toward the key were not due solely to the effects of pairing that stimulus with food. Autoshaped key pecking appears to be determined by the interacting effects of stimulus‐reinforcer and response‐reinforcer variables upon orientations to, approaches toward, and pecks at the lighted key.
HANDWRITING AS AN OPERANT1
Authors: Gonzalez Fernando A. , Waller Marcus B.
Published: March 2006

An apparatus was designed to monitor handwriting behavior. Two subjects were studied under various schedules of monetary reinforcement for handwriting. The different schedules engendered and maintained distinctive response patterns but the rates of sustained responding did not vary across schedules. The development of fixed‐interval performance following continuous reinforcement resembled the same transition in lower animals. In one subject, availability of reading material interacted with the schedule to determine response pattern. It was suggested that handwriting may be a more appropriate response for the experimental analysis of human behavior than the more frequently used button‐pushing or lever‐pulling responses.
TRANSFER OF MATCHING‐TO‐SAMPLE IN PIGEONS1
Authors: Farthing G. William , Opuda Michael J.
Published: March 2006

In Experiment I, pigeons were first trained on simultaneous matching‐to‐sample with either color stimuli or form stimuli, and then shifted to stimuli on the other dimension. Matching performance in the first session with stimuli on a given dimension was not affected by prior matching training with stimuli on the other dimension. However, in the first six color‐matching sessions pooled, birds with prior form‐matching training performed significantly better than birds without any prior matching training. In Experiment II, birds with experience matching both colors and forms in separate sessions were tested with novel stimulus configurations involving either novel stimuli or novel combinations of familiar colors and forms. Matching performance was not affected by novel stimulus configurations, except that performance dropped to a chance level or below when the standard stimulus was novel. In Experiments II, III, and IV, three of four tests did not show any effect of prior reinforcement of pecks at a novel stimulus, presented alone, on subsequent matching of that stimulus. The results were interpreted as indicating that matching performance in pigeons depends on the learning of stimulus‐response chains involving the specific stimuli employed during training. An incidental observation in Experiments I and II was that there were typically more excess pecks at the standard stimulus during form‐matching sessions than during color‐matching sessions, which may be related to the fact that form matching is more difficult than color matching.
EFFECTS OF RESPONSE RATE, REINFORCEMENT FREQUENCY, AND THE DURATION OF A STIMULUS PRECEDING RESPONSE‐INDEPENDENT FOOD1
Authors: Smith James B.
Published: March 2006

Food‐reinforced key pecking in the pigeon was maintained under a four‐component multiple schedule. In two components, responding was maintained at high rates under a random‐ratio schedule. In the other two components, responding was maintained at low rates under a schedule that specified a minimum interresponse time. For both high and low response rates, one of the schedule components was associated with a high reinforcement frequency and the other components with a lower reinforcement frequency. During performance under these schedules, a stimulus terminated by access to response‐independent food was periodically presented. The duration of this pre‐food stimulus was 5, 30, 60, or 120 sec. Changes in rate of key pecking during the pre‐food stimulus were systematically related to baseline response rate and the duration of the stimulus. Both high and low response rates were increased during the 5‐sec stimulus. At longer stimulus durations, low response rates were unaffected and high response rates were decreased during the stimulus. For two of three pigeons, high response rates maintained under a lower frequency of reinforcement tended to be decreased more than high response rates maintained under a higher reinforcement frequency. In general, the magnitude of decrease in high response rates was inversely related to the duration of the pre‐food stimulus.
THE ROLE OF ELICITED RESPONDING IN BEHAVIORAL CONTRAST1
Authors: Keller K.
Published: March 2006

An attempt was made to separate operant and elicited pecks occurring in multiple schedules of food reinforcement by moving the component stimuli to a second key, upon which pecks had no effect. The operant key stimulus was constant, regardless of the reinforcement schedule in effect. Experiments included two‐ and three‐component multiple schedules and a comparison of the single‐key and the two‐key procedures. In general, conditions that typically produce positive contrast in single‐key procedures reduced responding to the constant‐stimulus key (induction) and increased responding to the component‐stimulus key (contrast) in the two‐key procedure. The results were interpreted as supporting the contention that two response classes, operant and elicited, are present in standard multiple schedules. In addition, elicited responses were strongly implicated in contrast phenomena.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OBSERVING BEHAVIOR AND FOOD‐KEY RESPONSE RATES UNDER MIXED AND MULTIPLE SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT1
Authors: Hirota Theodore T.
Published: March 2006

Pigeons were trained under an observing response procedure in which pecks on one key (food key) were reinforced under a mixed fixed‐interval 30‐sec extinction schedule. A response on a second (observing) key replaced the mixed‐schedule stimulus with either of two multiple‐schedule stimuli (red and green keylights) for 5 sec. Observing response rates were positively correlated with food‐key response rates in the presence of multiple‐schedule stimuli and inversely related to food‐key response rates in the presence of mixed‐schedule stimuli. These results suggest that observing response output is controlled not only by the stimuli produced by observing responses but also by the stimuli in the presence of which observing responses occur. The possibility that observing responses alter the probability of reinforcement is advanced.
FIXED‐RATIO AND FIXED‐INTERVAL SCHEDULE CONTROL OF MATCHING‐TO‐SAMPLE ERRORS BY CHILDREN1
Authors: Davidson Neal A. , Osborne J. Grayson
Published: March 2006

Nine children, ages 4 through 7 yr, matched‐to‐sample on fixed‐ratio, fixed‐interval, variable‐ratio, and variable‐interval schedules of reinforcement. Simultaneous, zero‐delay, and 2‐sec delay matching were employed. Distributions of errors, in which the greatest number of errors occurred at the ordinal position immediately after reinforcement with fewer errors occurring at subsequent positions in the ratio, were produced by six of six children on fixed‐ratio schedules for zero‐delay and both of two children for 2‐sec delay matching. Only two children of seven produced similar error distributions on simultaneous matching for fixed‐ratio reinforcement. Variable‐ratio schedules produced slightly lower accuracy for most subjects and no systematic error patterns for any subject. Error distributions occurred for all of the five children who experienced fixed‐interval schedules for zero‐delay matching. Peak error production occurred in the second fourth of the interval. Similar patterns were not produced on variable‐interval schedules of equal reinforcement density. Schedule control of complex discriminated operants in children resembles control over similar responses of nonhuman animals.
BIAS FUNCTIONS AND OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS OF RATS DISCRIMINATING AUDITORY STIMULI
Authors: Hume Ann L. , Irwin R. J.
Published: March 2006

Rats were trained to discriminate between two bursts of random noise that differed in intensity. In a two‐lever, discrete‐trial procedure, correct responses were reinforced with brain stimulation, and incorrect responses produced timeout. Responding was studied as a function of the decibel difference between the stimuli, the probabilities of presenting the stimuli, the relative duration of timeout consequent upon the two types of incorrect responses, and the absolute duration of timeout consequent upon incorrect responses. The results showed that the distribution of responses between the two levers depended upon the stimulus probabilities, but were independent of either the absolute or relative durations of timeout. When the stimulus probabilities were varied, the response probabilities did not match the stimulus probabilities; when the relative durations of timeout were varied, the animals did not obtain the maximum rate of reinforcement per unit time. Instead, the animals distributed their responses so as to obtain the maximum number of reinforcements at each level of discrimination. In addition, the level of discrimination increased as a function of the decibel difference between the stimuli.