bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
COMPLEX RESPONSE PATTERNS DURING TEMPORALLY SPACED RESPONDING
Authors: Hodos William , Ross Gilbert S. , Brady Joseph V.
Published: March 2006

A series of experiments is reported in which two monkeys emitted complex response patterns, not specified by the experimental program, during the DRL component of a multiple schedule. Administration of sodium pentobarbital and dl‐amphetamine, drugs which disrupted the DRL performance, were also observed to suppress these collateral responses. Sequences of these collateral responses appear to mediate, at least in part, the timing process required for reinforced performance on the DRL schedule.
EFFECTS ON DEPRIVATION AND REINFORCEMENT‐MAGNITUDE OF RESPONSE VARIABILITY1
Authors: Carlton Peter L.
Published: March 2006

Animals were trained to displace any one of five response keys in order to put themselves in a stimulus condition in which reinforcement could be obtained by depressing a response lever. Decreased deprivation and magnitude of reinforcement were found to increase the variability of the distribution of key responses. The relevance of these findings to other experiments in which deprivation, reinforcement magnitude, and intermittent reinforcement were studied is discussed.
THE EFECT OF TWO SCHEDULES OF PRIMARY AND CONDITIONED REINFORCEMENT
Authors: Stevenson Joan G. , Reese T. W.
Published: March 2006

Of 23 pigeons, 11 received continuous reinforcement for key pecking, and 12 received an FR 10 schedule of reinforcement. The birds were then tested without food, but with potential conditioned reinforcers presented either on the same schedule as in training, on the other schedule, or not at all. Each bird in the subgroup trained on CRF and tested with Sr's at FR 10 not only gave more responses in testing than did each bird in both subgroups receiving no Sr's, but also gave more responses than did each bird in the Sr subgroup receiving CRF training and Sr's at CRF. Cumulative records are presented to show the effects of different schedules of conditioned reinforcers.
NONCONSUMPTION OF THE REINFORCER UNDER DRUG ACTION
Authors: Faidherbe J. , Richelle M. , Schlag J.
Published: March 2006

Cats were trained to respond on a multiple discriminative schedule, with milk as reinforcement. Two subjects did not immediately consume the reinforcer when they were injected with 6 mg of methylphenidate before the experiment. This observation could be repeated in one of the subjects under various conditions of reinforcement and various doses of the drug. Control experiments showed that under normal conditions the same cats never ignored the reinforcer. The modification induced by the drug in the relationship between behavior and the reinforcement is discussed in its bearing on the notion of reinforcer.
PROCEDURES FOR GIVING IMMEDIATE REINFORCEMENT IN PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION1
Authors: Schutz Richard E. , Whittemore Robert G.
Published: March 2006

This paper describes several procedures for using special chemicals or inks to immediately reinforce a response to a multiple‐choice stimulus. These procedures are known to be currently available, economically feasible, and administratively practical.
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE ADVENTITIOUS REINFORCEMENT OF DRINKING UNDER FOOD REINFORCEMENT1
Authors: Clark Fogle C.
Published: March 2006

The development of strong postreinforcement drinking behavior under variable‐interval food reinforcement in rats was found to be influenced by the proportion of short intervals in the VI and the proximity of the water tube to the lever.
THE EFFECT OF DRUGS ON A FIXED‐RATIO PERFORMANCE SUPPRESSED BY A PRE—TIME‐OUT STIMULUS1,2
Authors: Ferster C. B. , Appel J. B. , Hiss R. A.
Published: March 2006

Pecking was reinforced by a fixed‐ratio schedule with food, and responses during a red light produced a time out. If the bird did not respond during the red light, the light terminated and the bird could complete the FR schedule of positive reinforcement uninterrupted. The bird stopped responding during the red light sufficiently to avoid most of the possible time outs. In general, the pre—time‐out stimulus suppressed responding more when the FR schedule was large than when it was small. The occurrence of the pre—time‐out stimulus in the fixed ratio produced FR strain and extreme curvature atypical of normal fixed ratios of this size. Amobarbital, pentobarbital, chlorpromazine, and d‐amphetamine injected when the FR performance was strained by the pre—time‐out procedure produced marked increases in responding. The drug administration lowered the rate of responding only at larger doses; and then this occurred predominantly just after the injection.
DISTRIBUTIONAL PROPERTIES OF OPERANT‐LEVEL LOCOMOTION IN THE RAT1
Authors: Premack David , Schaeffer Robert W.
Published: March 2006

Four rats had continuous access to activity wheels first, then access for 1 hr per day, and, subsequently, continuous access. Limiting S's access to the wheel substantially increased the total frequency of running. A distributional analysis of response duration, burst duration, and interburst interval showed that the increased frequency arose almost entirely from a shortening of the interval between successive bursts. In contrast, speed of the individual response and number of responses per burst changed only negligibly. If S were running, the probability that it would either stop or continue did not differ appreciably for the conditions of continuous or limited access to the wheel. But if S were not running, the probability that it would start running was appreciably greater for limited than for continuous access.
CLASSICAL AVOIDANCE WITHOUT A WARNING STIMULUS
Authors: Sidman Murray
Published: March 2006

White rats were scheduled to be shocked every 15 sec; but they were given a limited time interval between shocks when they could prevent the next scheduled shock from occurring if they pressed a lever. The duration of this limited avoidance period was varied, as was its location within the interval between scheduled shocks. Response rate, shock frequency, and the temporal distribution of lever presses were examined. Conditions were generated in which the formation of a temporal discrimination prevented the animals from maintaining successful avoidance behavior.
A NOTE ON CHAINING AND TEMPORAL DISCRIMINATION1
Authors: Nevin John A. , Berryman Robert
Published: March 2006

Four pigeons were exposed to a two‐key DRL procedure. At the start of a trial, key A was illuminated. A response to the lighted key turned it off and simultaneously illuminated key B. Reinforcement was available for responses on key B which followed the initial key A response by more than 2 sec. In the course of exposure to these conditions, all birds acquired superstitious response chains on key A. The distribution of the number of responses on key A preceding a key B response and the distribution of intervals elapsing from the initial key A response to the key B response were of the same form. The suggestion is made that the superstitious responding on key A served to mediate the required delay interval. However, when intervals between successive key A responses were recorded for one subject, they were found to be regularly spaced in time. Thus, the problem remains of how this behavior is itself timed.
PUNISHMENT OF TEMPORALLY SPACED RESPONDING1
Authors: Holz W. C. , Azrin N. H. , Ulrich R. E.
Published: March 2006

The responses of pigeons were maintained by a DRL schedule of food reinforcement. With this schedule, responses were reinforced only when a fixed period of time elapsed without an intervening response. Punishment of all responses reduced the frequency of these responses as a direct function of the punishment intensity. As a consequence of the increased temporal spacing of responses, more reinforcements resulted during punishment. Under progressively higher intensities of punishment, the reinforcement frequency increased to a maximum value and then decreased at the highest intensities. The increased frequency of reinforcement which resulted during punishment did not counteract the suppressive effect of punishment, nor did it lead to a low response rate after punishment was removed. Punishment did not reduce the inter‐response time distribution uniformly, but rather especially reduced the number of short inter‐response times. Even at the low punishment intensities, the number of short inter‐response times was considerably reduced. After punishment was discontinued, performance recovered almost completely after a compensatory burst. The number as well as the temporal pattern of responses returned to normal.
EFFECTS OF PENTOBARBITAL ON FIXED‐RATIO REINFORCEMENT1,2
Authors: Waller Marcus B. , Morse W. H.
Published: March 2006

Certain doses of pentobarbital consistently increased the rate of pecking engendered by a fixed‐ratio schedule of 30 responses in a group of 13 pigeons, and still higher doses produced decrements in rate of responding. For individual subjects, the dose‐effect functions were qualitatively similar, but differed with respect to the doses producing the maximum increase and subsequent decrease in rate. In general, the maximum occurred at lower doses and the decrement was greater at the highest dose in the birds with the highest control rates. It was also possible to distinguish between the effects of pentobarbital and several other drugs on the behavior maintained by FR 30. The results indicate that changes in rate of responding on FR 30 after drug administration are dose‐dependent, drug‐specific effects.
SOME LIMITATIONS ON BEHAVIORAL CONTRAST AND INDUCTION DURING SUCCESSIVE DISCRIMINATION1
Authors: Reynolds George S.
Published: March 2006

A pigeon's rate of pecking on a red key, reinforced at a constant frequency, may be changed by increasing or decreasing the frequency of reinforcement of pecking on a successively presented green key. The changes in the rate of pecking on red, called interactions, are of two types: contrast, in which the changes in the rates of pecking on the two colors are in opposite directions; and, induction, in which the changes in the rates are in the same direction. In previous data, a change in the frequency of reinforcement associated with the green key produced a corresponding change in the rate of pecking the green key and an opposite change (contrast) in the rate of pecking on the red key. The present data suggest that the magnitude of contrast is very small if pecking on the red key is reinforced at a high enough frequency (about 40 reinforcements per hr in the present experiment). Also, given that interactions occur, induction rather than contrast may result from small changes in a low frequency of reinforcement associated with green.
EFFECT OF AMOUNT OF TRAINING ON RATE AND DURATION OF RESPONDING DURING EXTINCTION1
Authors: Thompson Travis , Heistad Gordon T. , Palermo David S.
Published: March 2006

Four experiments are reported in which the amount of CRF training prior to extinction is examined as it effects transient changes in response frequency and duration immediately following extinction onset. The first two experiments, using albino rats as subjects and water reinforcement, revealed a reliable relationship between length of time on CRF and the tendency to increase response frequency, duration, and the variability of response frequency and duration. Two comparative experiments were conducted using 53‐to‐69‐month old children as subjects, and recorded music as reinforcement. The results of the first child study failed to conform with those obtained in the rat experiments. However, manipulation of the reinforcer in a subsequent study reproduced the rat extinction effect. Despite the differences in the rat and child experiments, the qualitative similarity of the results of the four studies suggests a basic underlying comparability of the relationship between the amount of training and transient changes in response frequency.
EFFECTS OF HUNGER AND VI VALUE ON VI PACING1
Authors: Revusky Samuel H.
Published: March 2006

In two experiments, each involving four rats, responses preceded by an inter‐response time between 8 and 10 sec in duration were intermittently reinforced. In Experiment I, final performance was compared under two hunger levels, while the frequency of reinforcement was held constant by a VI 5 schedule. In Experiment II, hunger was held constant and VI 5 was compared with VI 8. Both hunger and frequency of reinforcement increased the over‐all rate of response, but the exact effects of these operations on temporal discrimination were different for different rats. Usually, a peak “response probability” (IRTs/Op ratio) was obtained 8 to 10 sec after the preceding response, indicating adaptation to the reinforcement contingency, but in some cases this peak was about 2 sec earlier. One rat exhibited unusually pronounced bursting which seemed to alternate with adaptive temporally spaced responding. Prolonged pauses, observable in the cumulative records, particularly following reinforcement, were attributed to the fact that inter‐response times greater than 10 sec were not reinforced, so that as the interval of time since the preceding response became discriminably greater than 10 sec, the probability of a response became small.
A FURTHER STUDY OF STIMULUS GENERALIZATION FOLLOWING THREE‐STIMULUS DISCRIMINATION TRAINING1
Authors: Thomas David R. , Williams Jon L.
Published: March 2006

A group of pigeons was trained in a Skinner box to peck for VI reinforcement when the key was illuminated by a monochromatic light of 540 or 580 mμ but were non‐reinforced for responding to 560 mμ. Two control groups, differing in amount of training, received only the two positive stimuli. At the completion of training all Ss received generalization tests under extinction. Both control groups produced bi‐modal generalization gradients with the peaks of responding at the S+ values. The post‐discrimination gradient revealed peaks displaced from the S+ values in the direction away from the S—, low responding and increased steepness in the region of S— and a general elevation of the gradient.
METHODS AND FINDINGS IN AN ANALYSIS OF A VOCAL OPERANT
Authors: Lane Harlan L. , Shinkman Paul G. ,   Communication SciencesLaboratory
Published: March 2006

The relations among acoustic parameters of a vocal operant were considered and some methods for their measurement are described. Four human subjects (Ss) and one chick were employed in an experiment on the relations among vocal rate, vocal topography, and schedules of reinforcement. The earlier finding that schedules of reinforcement control human and infra‐human vocal responding as they do other operants was replicated and extended to the case of variable‐interval reinforcement. An analysis of response amplitude, pitch, and duration showed that the mean and variance of these parameters typically increase from CRF to VI, from VI to EXT and, for a second group of Ss, from CRF to EXT. The topography of the chick's vocal response appears to stand in the same relation to reinforcement operations as does the human vocal response.
EXPERIMENTAL CONTROL OF SUPERSTITIOUS RESPONDING IN HUMANS1
Authors: Catania A. Charles , Cutts David
Published: March 2006

Superstitions were demonstrated with human subjects when presses on one button were reinforced on a VI 30‐sec schedule while presses on a second were never reinforced. Superstitious responding, on the second button, was often maintained because presses on that button were frequently followed by reinforcement for a subsequent press on the first button. The introduction of a changeover delay (COD), which separated in time presses on the second button and subsequent reinforced presses on the first button, reduced or eliminated the superstitious responding of these subjects. Some complex superstitions were also demonstrated with other subjects for which the COD was in effect from the beginning of the session.
IMMOBILITY AS AN AVOIDANCE RESPONSE, AND ITS DISRUPTION BY DRUGS1
Authors: Bindra Dalbir , Anchel Harvey
Published: March 2006

Much of the available literature on avoidance behavior is based on responses which require the animal to run, lever‐press, or to make some active response to avoid noxious stimulation. The purpose of Experiment I reported in this paper was to determine whether animals can learn to sit or stand motionless in order to escape or avoid electric shock. Five experimental rats were given escape‐avoidance training, while five yoked control animals received electric shocks without any response‐related contingency. It was shown that an immobility avoidance response, as distinct from the unconditioned “freezing” response to shock, can be trained. The results of Experiment II (30 rats) revealed that this response is more readily acquired at higher shock intensities than at lower ones, provided escape by jumping is prevented at the high shock intensities. The effects of six doses of each of three drugs on the immobility avoidance response were studied in Experiment III (13 rats). Methylphenidate, chlorpromazine, and imipramine all produced a decrement in the immobility response, but the pattern and amount of the effects of the three drugs were quite different, one from the other. The implications of these findings for a general theory of avoidance behavior and for drug screening are discussed.
CONCURRENT PERFORMANCES: REINFORCEMENT INTERACTION AND RESPONSE INDEPENDENCE1
Authors: Catania A. Charles
Published: March 2006

When a pigeon's pecks on two keys were reinforced concurrently by two independent variable‐interval (VI) schedules, one for each key, the response rate on either key was given by the equation: R1 = Kr1/(r1 + r2)5/6, where R is response rate, r is reinforcement rate, and the subscripts 1 and 2 indicate keys 1 and 2. When the constant, K, was determined for a given pigeon in one schedule sequence, the equation predicted that pigeon's response rates in a second schedule sequence. The equation derived from two characteristics of the performance: the total response rate on the two keys was proportional to the one‐sixth power of the total reinforcement rate provided by the two VI schedules; and, the pigeon matched the relative response rate on a key to the relative reinforcement rate for that key. The equation states that response rate on one key depends in part on reinforcement rate for the other key, but implies that it does not depend on response rate on the other key. This independence of response rates on the two keys was demonstrated by presenting a stimulus to the pigeon whenever one key's schedule programmed reinforcement. This maintained the reinforcement rate for that key, but reduced the response rate almost to zero. The response rate on the other key, nevertheless, continued to vary with reinforcement rates according to the equation.
THE EFFECTS OF drl SCHEDULES ON SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF WORD UTTERANCE1
Authors: Kapostins Eli Eglons
Published: March 2006

The utterances of particular words—“selected verbal responses” (SVR's)—were reinforced according to five different drl schedules and studied under changes in the schedule and/or the SVR. The emissions of SVR's were shaped by the procedure, while the rates of saying all the different words were unaffected. The distributions of the percentages of different IRT's and IRT's/OP's changed very little when only the SVR was changed, suggesting that reinforcements had their main effect upon some kind of “delaying behavior.” The modal IRT classes were just above the drl specifications, and there was no evidence of a second modal class at short IRT's. The differences between actual and optimum median IRT's were fairly constant under different drl schedules. Individual differences appeared in the behavior interpolated between SVR's: some subjects (Ss) counted the number of intervening words, some reported increases in tension, and still others seemed to change the pitch of voice in a cyclical pattern. The transcripts of intervening verbal behavior indicated the presence of some chains of words, presumably formed before the experiment and “adapted” to the length of the delay required for reinforcement. In the experimental situation the formation of verbal chains was only rarely observable.
THE EFFECTS OF UNAVOIDABLE SHOCKS ON A MULTIPLE SCHEDULE HAVING AN AVOIDANCE COMPONENT1
Authors: Waller Marcus B. , Waller Patricia F.
Published: March 2006

Two dogs were maintained on a multiple schedule having both a food reinforced and an avoidance component (Mult VI 1′ SΔ AvoidSS20 RS20 SΔ). The effects of superimposing an Estes‐Skinner procedure for delivering unavoidable shocks on all components of the multiple schedule were observed. The buzzer‐shock pairing of the Estes‐Skinner procedure produced an increased rate of responding on the avoidance component of the schedule and also on the SΔ components. No persistent change in rate was observed on the food component during the pre‐shock stimulus. Control performances on all components could be regained by either extinguishing or eliminating the buzzer‐shock pairing. Extinction of the avoidance responding had little effect on the increased rates of responding produced by the Estes‐Skinner procedure on the SΔ and avoidance extinction components and did not lead to a conditioned suppression of the food reinforced responding. Rate of responding during the pre‐shock stimulus was observed to be relatively independent of changes in the maintaining schedules. Responding during the pre‐shock stimulus could be conditioned and maintained after an extensive history of avoidance extinction.
EFFECTS OF CHLORPROMAZINE AND D‐AMPHETAMINE ON ESCAPE AND AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOR UNDER A TEMPORALLY DEFINED SCHEDULE OF NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT1
Authors: Sidley N. A. , Schoenfeld W. N.
Published: March 2006

Chlorpromazine hydrochloride and d‐amphetamine sulphate were administered to two rats responding on a baseline temporally defined schedule of negative reinforcement which produced both “escape‐like” and “avoidance‐like” behavior. The effects of these drugs appeared similar to those expected on the more customary sort of non‐cued avoidance schedule.
GENERAL ACTIVITY AS INSTRUMENTAL: APPLICATION TO AVOIDANCE TRAINING1
Authors: Graf Virgil , Bitterman M. E.
Published: March 2006

Some data on Sidman avoidance in the pigeon are presented to illustrate a technique of instrumental training which places minimal restriction upon the form of the reinforced response. The effect of a warning signal is demonstrated, and the course of discrimination‐reversal is described.
FIXED‐INTERVAL PERFORMANCES WITH ADDED STIMULI IN MONKEYS1
Authors: Ferster C. B. , Zimmerman J.
Published: March 2006

The performance of two monkeys, on fixed‐interval schedules, was examined with a visual, an auditory and a combined auditory‐visual clock. The clock, a voltmeter and/or a variable frequency tone, produced performances different in many aspects from those recorded earlier with pigeons. Instead of the sustained high rates of responding at the optimal settings of the clock, the monkeys' rates of responding were often extremely low even though a limited‐hold contingency was utilized.
A FIXED INTERVAL SCHEDULE IN WHICH THE INTERVAL IS INITIATED BY A RESPONSE
Authors: Mechner Francis , Guevrekian Laurence , Mechner Vicki
Published: March 2006

The fixed interval schedule described requires the animal to initiate every time interval by making a response on a bar other than the one on which it is reinforced. This response, RA, demarcates the postreinforcement pause (SR‐RA interval) from the fixed interval pause (RA‐RB interval) so that these pauses may be measured separately. Twelve rats and three monkeys, working in two‐bar Skinner boxes, were trained and stabilized on this schedule. The resulting performances, presented for individual animals, are analyzed in terms of (1) the relative frequencies with which the animal waits various lengths of time between consecutive responses, (2) the relative frequencies with which various rates of responding appear, (3) the change in response rate throughout the fixed interval, (4) the average length of the postreinforcement pause, (5) the relative frequencies with which the animal waits different lengths of time between the RA and the first RB, and (6) the average inter‐response time as a function of the rank order in the fixed interval of the inter‐response time. The joint interpretation of the several measures taken leads to the following conclusions: 1. The probability of an RB increases throughout the fixed interval. 2. The increase is discontinuous at the first RB, at which point the probability increases sharply. 3. The frequency distributions of RA‐RA pauses exhibit three discrete types of behavior with no intermediate cases. 4. The (main) mode of RA‐RB interval length usually occurs just below the fixed interval requirement.
FREE‐OPERANT AVOIDANCE CONDITIONING IN INDIVIDUAL AND PAIRED HUMAN SUBJECTS
Authors: Ader Robert , Tatum Ronald
Published: March 2006

Male, medical and graduate students were subjected to a non‐discriminated avoidance regimen with shock‐shock and response‐shock intervals of 10 sec. Using a yoked‐chair procedure it was found that acquisition of the button‐pressing avoidance response was influenced by the social environment in which the conditioning occurred. There was a significantly greater number of “learners” among subjects conditioned individually than among those exposed to the conditioning procedures in the presence of a second person.
EXPERIMENTAL SELF‐PUNISHMENT AND SUPERSTITIOUS ESCAPE BEHAVIOR
Authors: Migler Bernard
Published: March 2006

Rats were trained to escape from shock by pressing a bar. Bar holding was subsequently punished with very brief shocks. This treatment failed to depress bar‐holding behavior. In some cases, although the escape shocks were delivered very infrequently, bar holding was maintained and resulted in the delivery of several thousand punishments per session. These and other effects of the punishment treatment were investigated. Finally, some of the possibilities of superstitious escape responding were explored by presenting inescapable shocks to rats that had been trained to escape shock by lever pressing. Although responding during these shocks had no programmed consequences, responding was sustained.
EFFECTS OF INCREMENT SIZE AND REINFORCER VOLUME ON PROGRESSIVE RATIO PERFORMANCE
Authors: Hodos William , Kalman Gabor
Published: March 2006

The progressive ratio schedule requires the subject to emit an increasing number of responses for each successive reinforcement. Eventually, the response requirement becomes so large that the subject fails to respond for a period of 15 min and thereby terminates the session. This point is arbitrarily defined as the “breaking point” of the subject's performance. The measure is quantified in terms of the number of responses in the final completed (i.e., reinforced) ratio run of the session. Previous work has shown that this measure varies as a function of several motivational variables and may thus be useful as an index of reinforcement strength. The present study is an extension of that work. The subjects were four rats. In the first experiment, the effects of the size of the increment by which each ratio run increased were studied. In two additional experiments, the volume of a liquid reinforcer was varied using both large and small ratio increments. The results indicate that the number of responses in the final completed ratio run increases as a function of the size of the ratio increment. However, the number of reinforcements obtained by the animals per session declines sharply. When large ratio increments are used, the number of responses in the final ratio increases as a function of the volume of the reinforcer, but when small increments are used, progressive satiation results in a decline in performance with the larger volumes of liquid.
REINFORCEMENT OF MEDIATING BEHAVIOR ON A SPACED‐RESPONDING SCHEDULE
Authors: Segal‐Rechtschaffen Evalyn
Published: March 2006

This paper describes a procedure for gaining experimental control over mediating behavipr on a spaced‐responding schedule of food reinforcement. Three rats, food‐deprived, were trained on a DRL 16 sec schedule of food reinforcement. Then, a concurrent schedule of food reinforcement was introduced on a second (mediating) lever, such that the first response to occur on the mediating lever, after the DRL interval had timed out, was reinforced with food, as was the next response to occur on the DRL lever. Reinforcement via the mediating lever became a discriminative stimulus for a food‐reinforcement opportunity on the DRL lever. Next, food reinforcement for the mediating behavior was replaced by a conditioned reinforcer consisting of onset of a buzzer signaling timing‐out of the DRL interval. Under these conditions, chaining of behavior on the two levers was strong, and timing on the DRL lever was more accurate than under ordinary DRL conditions. As the DRL requirement was lengthened from 16 sec to 24 sec to 60 sec, mediating behavior weakened slightly. When the inter‐response requirement for food reinforcement on the DRL lever was made shorter than the inter‐response requirement for conditioned reinforcement on the mediating lever, the mediating behavior extinguished. Performance in the experiment was analyzed into a four‐component chain, and the factors contributing to the maintenance, and later extinction, of mediating behavior are discussed.
d‐AMPHETAMINE‐CHLORPROMAZINE ANTAGONISM IN A FOOD REINFORCED OPERANT1
Authors: Brown Hugh
Published: March 2006

Dose effect curves for d‐amphetamine and chlorpromazine were obtained with rats on a milk reinforced FR 10 schedule. A dose of d‐amphetamine (2.5 mg/kg, i.p.) which completely suppressed all responding for 60 min was administered simultaneously (concomitant with the pretreatment times) with various doses of chlorpromazine. The d‐amphetamine‐induced cessation of responding was removed by several of the doses of chlorpromazine with maximal antagonism occurring at a dose of 1.5 mg/kg i.p. This dose of chlorpromazine, when administered independently, produced no observable side effects and showed no effect on the FR 10 schedule. One animal appeared to develop tolerance to the repeated dosages of d‐amphetamine.
AVERSIVE ASPECTS OF A SCHEDULE OF POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT1
Authors: Appel James B.
Published: March 2006

Six male White Carneaux pigeons were trained to peck at one of two keys to obtain food on several fixed‐ratio schedules of reinforcement. Concurrently, the first response on a second key could, I—change the conditions of visual stimulation and remove the food reinforcement contingency, II—change the conditions of stimulation and have no effect upon the reinforcement contingency, or III—do nothing. The second response on the stimulus change key always restored baseline conditions. When second‐key responses produced a stimulus change, the number of such responses was a function of the ratio value on the first key. Typically, second‐key responses occurred before the start of fixed‐ratio runs. The duration of stimulus change periods was an exponential function of the number of responses required for reinforcement when the possibility for reinforcement was not disturbed by periods of stimulus change (Condition II).
RANDOM INTERVAL SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT1
Authors: Millenson J. R.
Published: March 2006

A method for generating a reinforcement schedule that closely approximates idealized VI schedules in which reinforcement assignments occur randomly in time (RI schedules) is described. Response rates of pigeons exposed for 20 sessions to this schedule appeared very similar to response rates characteristic of arithmetic series VIs. The distribution function describing these schedules was derived and its relations to other VI distributions, as well as to FI and random ratio (RR) were shown.
TRANSFER ACROSS DRIVES OF THE DISCRIMINATIVE EFFECT OF A PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONED STIMULUS1
Authors: Bower Gordon , Kaufman Ronald
Published: March 2006

Previous results suggest that a stimulus paired in Pavlovian fashion with reward should exert some discriminative control over an unrelated operant response acquired under a different drive‐reward system. In the following experiment, a stimulus was first paired with food reinforcement for a hungry rat. Subsequently, the animal learned to lever‐press for water reinforcements when thirsty but not hungry. Finally, the control over lever‐pressing of the food‐paired stimulus was tested by presenting it at various times during extinction of the lever‐pressing response. All animals in the experiment showed the expected effect; each emitted more lever‐presses during periods of the food‐paired stimulus than during alternate control periods.
CHAINED AND TANDEM SCHEDULING WITH CHILDREN1
Authors: Long Eugene R.
Published: March 2006

Children 4 to 7 yr in age were reinforced with trinkets and pennies on chained and tandem schedules. The schedules used were chain DRL FR, chain DRO FR, chain FI FR, tand FI FR, and tand DRO FR. Chain DRL FR and chain DRO FR schedules almost always produced strong schedule and stimulus control, but chain FI FR schedules rarely did if additional techniques were not used. Strong control was produced with chain FI FR schedules, however, if: (a) the FR component was increased in size; (b) schedule and stimulus control was first established with chain DRL FR or chain DRO FR schedules before shifting to the chain FI FR; or (c) an external clock was attached to the FI. Tand FI FR schedules never produced regular or repeatable patterns of responding when additional procedures were not used. Rate patterns resembling those of chain FI FR schedules were produced by tand FI FR schedules, however, if: (a) an external clock was attached to the FI component or (b) control was established by means of tand DRO FR schedules before the tand FI FR was used. Stimulus control was found to be exercised by specific visual stimuli, change of stimuli, and schedule order. Control exercised by schedule order was probably mediated by the child's own behavior which had assumed discriminative stimulus properties.
PERSISTENT BEHAVIOR MAINTAINED BY UNAVOIDABLE SHOCKS
Authors: Kelleher Roger T. , Riddle William C. , Cook Leonard
Published: March 2006

Squirrel monkeys were trained on a multiple schedule in which 10‐min periods on a continuous shock avoidance schedule, indicated by a yellow light, alternated with 10‐min periods on a 1.5‐min variable interval schedule of food reinforcement (VI 1.5). A white light indicated that VI 1.5 was in effect, except for the middle 2 min of the period on VI 1.5, in which a blue light appeared and terminated with the delivery of a 0.5‐sec unavoidable shock. Stable response rates developed in the avoidance and VI 1.5 components. However, the highest response rates occurred in the blue, preshock stimulus. A series of experiments showed that responding in the blue stimulus persisted even when responding had been extinguished on both the VI schedule of food reinforcement and the shock avoidance schedule. Responding in the blue stimulus ceased when the blue stimulus terminated without shock or when it terminated with a response‐contingent shock. Each time responding ceased, it was restored by terminating the blue stimulus with an unavoidable shock. When the blue stimulus was on throughout each session and unavoidable shocks were delivered at regular 10‐min intervals, responding was well maintained. These results show that in monkeys that have been trained on a continuous avoidance schedule, unavoidable shocks can maintain responding even under conditions where responses have no programmed consequences.
ON SOME DETERMINANTS OF CHOICE IN PIGEONS
Authors: Reynolds George S.
Published: March 2006

A pigeon's pecking at each of two or three simultaneously available red keys was reinforced at different frequencies with a conditioned reinforcer, an orange key, on which 25 pecks resulted in a presentation of grain. Pecking was occasionally punished with a period of no reinforcement during which each key was dark. Both with two and with three keys, the relative frequency of pecking on a key was equal to the relative frequency of reinforcement obtained by pecks on that key. Also, the absolute frequency of pecking on each key was a linear function with zero intercept of the absolute frequency of reinforcement associated with that key. The slope of this function varied with the number of available keys; it was steeper with two than with three. The relative frequency of switching from any key (two successive pecks on different keys) approximated a linear function with zero intercept and slope slightly greater than 1.0 of the total relative frequency of reinforcement associated with the keys to which the bird could switch. However, the relative frequency of switching to a particular key often showed systematic irregularities. The invariance in these data is the equality between the relative frequency of pecks on one of two or three keys and the relative frequency of reinforcement associated with that key.
AN ADJUSTING AVOIDANCE PROCEDURE WITH MULTIPLE AUDITORY AND VISUAL WARNING STIMULI
Authors: Field George E. , Boren John J.
Published: March 2006

Male albino rats were trained on an adjusting avoidance schedule in which each lever press accumulated a given amount of shock‐free time. Multiple auditory and visual stimuli were programmed for each discrete temporal distance from the shock in an effort to place the avoidance behavior under the control of the shock proximity. The effects of the stimuli were further examined by presenting part of them and then by removing them altogether. With the combined auditory and visual stimuli, the rat spent most of the time relatively close to the shock and usually started to respond only when the shock was near. With the visual stimuli only, the rat kept the shock at intermediate temporal distances and responded more variably. The behavior with the auditory stimuli alone was quite similar to that produced by the combined stimuli, thus indicating that the auditory stimuli exercised the greater control. When all stimuli were removed, the animal usually kept the shock as far away as the procedure permitted. When only a single pre‐shock stimulus was presented, the rat remained quite close to the shock and started to respond predominantly in the pre‐shock step.
GENERALIZATION OF AUDITORY INTENSITY AS A FUNCTION OF SMALL AMOUNTS OF DISCRIMINATION TRAINING1
Authors: Pierrel Rosemary , Sherman J. Gilmour , Fischman Marian W.
Published: March 2006

Rats were trained on a two‐valued auditory‐intensity discrimination for 5, 2, 1 or 0 days. Then, the bar‐press response rate was sampled in the presence of seven added discrimination stimuli (generalization) for seven days. Daily training sessions were 4 hr in length throughout the experiment. Only the five‐day group exhibited a marked superiority on the multi‐valued discrimination when contrasted with the group having had no prior simple discrimination training.
GRADIENTS OF AUDITORY GENERALIZATION FOR BLIND, RETARDED CHILDREN
Authors: Lane Harlan , Curran Charles
Published: March 2006

Severely retarded, blind children were conditioned to respond differentially to two intensities of a pure tone. Gradients of auditory generalization were obtained that were reliable and similar to those for normal adults, but often asymmetric and nonmonotonic.
PUNISHMENT OF SΔ RESPONDING OF HUMANS IN CONDITIONAL MATCHING TO SAMPLE BY TIME‐OUT1
Authors: Zimmerman J. , Baydan Nuran T.
Published: March 2006

Human subjects were intermittently reinforced with money for performing correctly on a conditional matching‐to‐sample task. The matching performance was examined as a function of a) the duration of Time‐Outs (TOs) which followed every incorrect response and b) the frequency (FR value) with which TOs followed incorrect responses. The matching accuracy increased with longer TOs and decreased with less frequent presentation of TOs.
PROPERTIES OF BEHAVIOR UNDER RANDOM INTERVAL REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES1
Authors: Farmer John
Published: March 2006

In a temporally defined system of reinforcement schedules, the fixed interval case is defined when reinforcement probability, P, is equal to unity for the first response in any cycle length, T; when P is less than 1.0, random interval schedules emerge wherein T/P specifies the expected interval between reinforcements. Key‐pecking rates were found to be: (a) inversely related to T/P; (b) higher at T = 1.0 second than at other T parameter values; (c) low and linear at several T and T/P values. The mean post‐reinforcement pause, if initially small, increased, and if initially large, decreased, as T/P increased.
CHAINING AND SECONDARY REINFORCEMENT BASED ON ESCAPE FROM SHOCK1
Authors: Dinsmoor James A. , Clayton Marilyn H.
Published: March 2006

Three white rats were trained to press a bar while being shocked. This produced a white noise. After 30 sec they were allowed to terminate both the shock and the noise by nosing a pigeon key. Comparison of the rates of pressing before and after the onset of the noise indicated that the noise itself was the immediate reinforcing agent for pressing. Furthermore, control tests showed that pressing was maintained only if it produced the noise: either omission of the noise or elimination of the dependency of the noise on the occurrence of the response led to a gradual abolition of pressing. When automatic termination of the shock was substituted for the key nosing requirement, however, only the key nosing extinguished. This indicated that the effectiveness of the noise as a reinforcer did not depend on its status as a discriminative stimulus for some other form of operant behavior.
ESCAPE FROM SD ASSOCIATED WITH FIXED‐RATIO REINFORCEMENT1
Authors: Thompson Donald M.
Published: March 2006

Throughout ascending and descending fixed‐ratio (FR) sequences, rats were allowed to terminate the FR stimulus control by pressing a time‐out (TO) lever. To minimize chance or accidental responses on this second lever, three presses were required to produce the 30‐sec SΔ period. As FR performance became more “strained,” there was an increased predisposition to escape from the time‐in stimulus complex. The generality of this finding was extended by obtaining recoverability (independent of the direction of stimulus change) of the FR‐TO function in the descending series. Typically, escapes were produced only during the post‐reinforcement pause; however, under a mixed FR FR schedule, their occurrence shifted to a point within the inter‐reinforcement interval corresponding to the unreinforced completion of the lower ratio component. It appears that the point where the rat can discriminate the size of the ratio requirement will be the place where TOs are imposed. This inference was supported by a substantial increase in TO frequency accompanying a shift from CRF to extinction on the FR lever. Finally, the escape lever was placed on a progressively increasing FR schedule and later extinguished to demonstrate that the TO condition was in fact reinforcing.
EFFECTS OF CLASS‐INTERVAL SIZE UPON CERTAIN FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS OF INTER‐RESPONSE TIMES1
Authors: Ray Ronald C. , McGill William
Published: March 2006

Inter‐response time distributions with class intervals of 0.05 and 0.04 sec revealed characteristics not observable with class intervals of 0.5 sec or greater. Bimodalities were clearly evident in the inter‐response time distributions for two out of three pigeons. These modes seemed to correspond to two discrete response topographies.
FURTHER EXPERIMENTS ON PROBABILITY‐MATCHING IN THE PIGEON1
Authors: Graf Virgil , Bullock D. H. , Bitterman M. E.
Published: March 2006

In a discrete‐trials, two‐key choice situation, probability‐learning by pigeons was studied under a variety of training conditions. Matching was found in simultaneous and in successive problems, but a spatial problem produced only maximizing. In the simultaneous problem, noncorrection produced maximizing, while correction produced matching. Guidance produced maximizing when the animals were required to earn each opportunity for choice by pecking a center key on FR‐5, but matching when the center key was not used. In a discrete‐trials one‐key situation, with latency as the measure, frequency and probability of reinforcement were varied independently. Differences in probability produced differences in latency of response, but differences in frequency did not.
EXTEROCEPTIVE CONTROL OF RESPONSE UNDER DELAYED REINFORCEMENT
Authors: Azzi Rodolpho , Fix Dora S. R. , Keller Fred S. , Silva Maria Ignez Rocha e
Published: March 2006

Three white rats, after 50 continuous reinforcements, were exposed successively, under dim illumination, to reinforcement delays of 1, 3, 5, 7.5, 10, 15, and 20 sec, with prolonged training at the 20‐sec level. Behavior was maintained at each level, and an increase in interval was accompanied by an increase in post‐reinforcement pause. Subsequently, under both 20‐ and 30‐sec delays, the animals were tested during half of each daily session to determine the effect of introducing darkness during each delay interval. The result of this stimulus “support” was to regularize and increase response rate for each animal at both interval values.
GENERALIZATION GRADIENTS FOLLOWING TWO‐RESPONSE DISCRIMINATION TRAINING1
Authors: Risley Todd
Published: March 2006

Stimulus generalization was investigated using institutionalized human retardates as subjects. A baseline was established in which two values along the stimulus dimension of auditory frequency differentially controlled responding on two bars. The insertion of the test probes disrupted the control established to the two SDs during training. The discrimination was recovered between each test probe and the resulting gradients were stable across 10 test sessions. These gradients, supported by other two‐response generalization studies, indicate that this type of two‐response discrimination training divides the stimulus dimension into two functional classes separated by a region of transition from one class to the other. Each stimulus value in a class, which extends from an SD outward to the functional limit of the dimension, controls a similar proportion of the two responses as each other value in the class. All values on the stimulus dimension control identical response rates with an absence of the usual generalization decrement. The latency of the initial response, however, shows a bimodal gradient with the modes at the SD values.
STIMULUS GENERALIZATION OF THE EFFECTS OF PUNISHMENT1
Authors: Honig Werner K. , Slivka Robert M.
Published: March 2006

Three pigeons were trained to respond to seven spectral stimulus values ranging from 490 to 610 mμ and displayed in random order on a response key. After response rates had equalized to these values, a brief electric shock was administered when the subject (S) responded to the central value (550 mμ) while positive reinforcement for all values was maintained. Initially, there was broad generalization of the resulting depression in response rate, but the gradients grew steeper in the course of testing. When punishment was discontinued, the rates to all values recovered, and equal responding to all stimuli was reattained by two of the Ss. Stimulus control over the effects of punishment was clearly demonstrated in the form of a generalization gradient; this probably resulted from the combined effects of generalization of the depression associated with punishment and discrimination between the punished value and neutral stimuli.
PAIN‐AGGRESSION TOWARD INANIMATE OBJECTS1
Authors: Azrin N. H. , Hutchinson R. R. , Sallery R. D.
Published: March 2006

Attack behavior was elicited from squirrel monkeys by externally applied electric shock. The shock elicited attack toward other monkeys, rats, and mice, as well as toward inanimate objects, such as a stuffed doll, and even a round ball. A method of quantifying the attack behavior was devised on the basis of the attack against inanimate objects. This method revealed that the duration and probability of attack was a direct function of the shock intensity.