The establishment of stimulus control by instructions and by differential reinforcement

Disentangling learning from knowing: Does associative learning ability underlie performances on cognitive test batteries?

Are the mechanisms underlying variations in the performance of animals on cognitive test batteries analogous to those of humans? Differences might result from procedural inconsistencies in test battery design, but also from differences in how animals and humans solve cognitive problems. We suggest differentiating associative-based (learning) from rule-based (knowing) tasks to further our understanding of cognitive evolution across species.

Function-Altering Effects of Rule Phrasing in the Modulation of Instructional Control

This study evaluated the effects of four instructional variants on instruction following under changing reinforcement schedules using an operant task based on Hackenberg and Joker's Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 62, 367-383 (1994) experimental preparation. Sixteen college-aged adults served as participants and were randomly assigned to one of four instruction conditions (directive, generic, non-directive, and control). Results suggest textual verbal behavior modulated instruction following. Specifically, directive and generic instructions produced greater levels of instructional control and relatively lower levels of schedule control compared to non-directive instructions. Thus, participants in the directive and generic groups responded in accordance with the instructions even when schedules of reinforcement favored deviation from the instructed pattern. In contrast, participants in the non-directive group responded toward the optimal pattern. In the control condition, participant responding was variable but toward the optimal pattern. Findings are interpreted within the framework of Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior and formulation of rule governance.

Effects of number of alternatives on choice in humans

The present study examined human choice between a task including a single alternative (i.e. a single-alternative task), and a task including multiple alternatives (i.e. a multi-alternative task). The subjects were divided into three groups and were exposed to three conditions. The multi-alternative task included two alternatives in two groups and included three alternatives in one group. An alternative in the single-alternative task was identical to one in the multi-alternative task. Amount of reinforcement for alternatives specific to the multi-alternative tasks was manipulated under three conditions in each group. When the amount of reinforcement was equal to or larger than that in the alternative common to both tasks, the subjects preferred the multi-alternative task over the single-alternative task. When amount of reinforcement was smaller, there was no difference in preference between the multi-alternative and the single-alternative tasks. In addition, the degree of preference for the multi-alternative task depended on the number of alternatives that produced larger reinforcers.

The role of atomic repertoires in complex behavior

Evolution and reinforcement shape adaptive forms and adaptive behavior through many cycles of blind variation and selection, and therein lie their parsimony and power. Human behavior is distinctive in that this shaping process is commonly "short circuited": Critical variations are induced in a single trial. The processes by which this economy is accomplished have a common feature: They all exploit one or more atomic repertoires, elementary units of behavior each under control of a distinctive stimulus. By appropriate arrangements of these discriminative stimuli, an indefinite number of permutations of atomic units can be evoked. When such a permutation satisfies a second contingency, it can come under control of the relevant context, and the explicit arrangement of discriminative stimuli will no longer be required. Consequently, innovations in adaptive behavior can spread rapidly through the population. A consideration of atomic repertoires informs our interpretation of generalized operants and other phenomena that are otherwise difficult to explain. Observational learning is discussed as a case in point.

Behavior analysis and social constructionism: some points of contact and departure

Social constructionists occasionally single out behavior analysis as the field of psychology that most closely resembles the natural sciences in its commitment to empiricism, and accuses it of suffering from many of the limitations to science identified by the postmodernist movement (e.g., K. J. Gergen, 1985a; Soyland, 1994). Indeed, behavior analysis is a natural science in many respects. However, it also shares with social constructionism important epistemological features such as a rejection of mentalism, a functional-analytic approach to language, the use of interpretive methodologies, and a reflexive stance on analysis. The current paper outlines briefly the key tenets of the behavior-analytic and social constructionist perspectives before examining a number of commonalties between these approaches. The paper aims to show that far from being a nemesis to social constructionism, behavior analysis may in fact be its close ally.

Assessing visual attention in young children and adolescents with severe mental retardation utilizing conditional-discrimination tasks and multiple testing procedures

To effectively reduce overselective attention, a fine-grained analysis of the control exhibited by compound training cues is first needed. Computer software was developed in this study to administer two different stimulus control-testing procedures to assess how three young children of normal development and three adolescents with severe mental retardation attended to stimulus compounds when conditional-discrimination tasks were provided. One test assessed stimulus control by determining response accuracy for each component of the S+ compounds. The other testing procedure measured the response topographies of the compound stimuli using a touch screen attached to a computer monitor screen. After pretraining each stimulus component, all three children attended simultaneously to two elements in a conditional-discrimination task with few errors occurring. The adolescents with mental retardation eventually attended to both elements simultaneously but required more pretraining and exposure to the conditional-discrimination tasks before simultaneous attention occurred. Since the adolescents with severe mental retardation learned to simultaneously attend to multiple cues in the conditional-discrimination tasks, this demonstrated that restricted attention is not an unmodifiable perceptual characteristic among individuals with developmental disabilities. Recording response topographies with a touch screen was also discovered to be a sensitive measure of stimulus preferences for both groups. Utilizing touch-screen technology may prove to be critical for accurately identifying stimulus preferences and contribute to the understanding and treatment of overselective attention in students with attentional deficits.

Efeitos de contingências de punição sobre os desempenhos verbal e não verbal

O presente estudo investigou a influência de contingências de punição sobre os desempenhos verbal (resposta de relato) e não verbal (resposta de escolha). Estudantes universitários foram expostos a uma tarefa de escolha de acordo com o modelo. Após a resposta de escolha, a pergunta "Você acertou?" era apresentada e o participante deveria emitir a resposta de relato, indicando uma dentre duas alternativas, "SIM" e "NÃO". No Experimento 1, o feedback "Incorreto. Você perdeu 1 ponto" foi programado para a resposta de relato e, no Experimento 2, o feedback foi contingente à resposta de escolha. No Experimento 1, o feedback exerceu funções punitivas sobre a resposta de relato e, na maioria das condições, não afetou a resposta de escolha. No Experimento 2, o feedback não exerceu controle sobre a resposta de escolha, embora tenha influenciado as respostas de relato. Esses resultados sugerem que os desempenhos verbal e não verbal são funcionalmente independentes. O presente estudo evidencia o caráter operante do relato e, ao identificar possíveis variáveis de controle desse comportamento, contribui para uma maior fidedignidade dos dados obtidos por meio de auto-relatos.

Instruções e iniqüidade de reforços: efeitos sobre o comportamento competitivo

O presente estudo investigou se a precisão da instrução afetaria os efeitos da iniqüidade de reforços. Trinta estudantes universitários, separados em duplas, escolheram entre trabalhar sozinho ou competir com o parceiro. Na alternativa individual, os pontos foram distribuídos igualmente entre os participantes; na alternativa de competição, a distribuição de pontos foi manipulada no decorrer das condições de modo que o Participante 1 ganhava mais pontos que o Participante 2, ou vice-versa. Algumas duplas receberam informação completa sobre a distribuição de pontos (instrução precisa); outras receberam informação indicando que, algumas vezes, um participante receberia mais pontos que o outro (instrução imprecisa); e, as demais, não receberam nenhuma informação (sem instrução). A instrução imprecisa produziu escolha acentuada por competição para ambos participantes, a instrução precisa gerou escolhas sensíveis às manipulações na iniqüidade e, na ausência de instruções, ambos resultados foram observados. Foi concluído que a instrução precisa gerou estratégias mais eficientes de fuga e esquiva da iniqüidade.

Reducing overselective attention to compound visual cues with extended training in adolescents with severe mental retardation

Because of the devastating impact a disturbance in responding to multiple cues can have on a child's development, this investigation determined whether computer touch-screen technology could be utilized to improve the attentional skills of students with severe developmental disabilities after attentional deficits were initially identified. In particular, we assessed whether establishing prior reinforcement histories for separate stimuli would control how adolescents with severe mental retardation attended to visual compounds when extended training was given. Initially, prior reinforcement contingencies of individual stimuli failed to control the attention of the adolescents (Huguenin, 1997). Longer single stimulus pretraining and additional exposure to compounds containing stimulus components with conflicting reinforcement histories, however, eventually proved effective in determining what aspects of complex visual cues they attended to. In most instances, the adolescents selectively responded to stimulus elements whose prior reinforcement histories were unchanged in the compound after additional training was administered. Stimulus elements with a reversed prior reinforcement contingency were usually ignored. The reliability of the effect of prior reinforcement histories of individual stimulus elements on attention to visual compounds following additional training was confirmed with multiple testing procedures, automatically administered by a computer. Even though presenting conflict compounds initially identified students with overselective attention, extended exposure to single stimulus training and conflict compounds alleviated stimulus overselectivity and improved their attentional skills. After individual stimulus-response relations were reestablished and sufficiently reinforced to reduce disrupting effects when compound training cues were presented, stimulus overselectivity was eliminated. Through longer single stimulus pretraining and additional exposure to training compounds, adolescents with severe mental retardation learned to selectively attend to each component of visual compounds when prior reinforcement histories associated with the individual stimulus elements were manipulated. The findings of this investigation indicated that overselective attention among students with developmental disabilities is not an unmodifiable perceptual characteristic. They also revealed that overselective attention may be due to the disrupting effects of compound training cues which can be minimized through longer single stimulus pretraining and repeated presentations of compound training cues. Utilizing computer technology to administer procedures similar to those described in this study may permit students with developmental disabilities to acquire essential attentional skills for learning educational tasks involving complex cues.

Vicarious learning revisited: a contemporary behavior analytic interpretation

Beginning in the 1960s, social learning theorists argued that behavioral learning principles could not account for behavior acquired through observation. Such a viewpoint is still widely held today. This rejection of behavioral principles in explaining vicarious learning was based on three phenomena: (1) imitation that occurred without direct reinforcement of the observer's behavior; (2) imitation that occurred after a long delay following modeling; and (3) a greater probability of imitation of the model's reinforced behavior than of the model's nonreinforced or punished behavior. These observations convinced social learning theorists that cognitive variables were required to explain behavior. Such a viewpoint has progressed aggressively, as evidenced by the change in name from social learning theory to social cognitive theory, and has been accompanied by the inclusion of information-processing theory. Many criticisms of operant theory, however, have ignored the full range of behavioral concepts and principles that have been derived to account for complex behavior. This paper will discuss some problems with the social learning theory explanation of vicarious learning and provide an interpretation of vicarious learning from a contemporary behavior analytic viewpoint.

Applied behavior analysis at West Virginia University: A brief history

The development of an emphasis on applied behavior analysis in the Department of Psychology at West Virginia University is traced. The emphasis began primarily in the early 1970s, under the leadership of Roger Maley and Jon Krapfl, and has continued to expand and evolve with the participation of numerous behavior analysts and behavior therapists, both inside and outside the department. The development has been facilitated by several factors: establishment of a strong behavioral emphasis in the three Clinical graduate programs; change of the graduate program in Experimental Psychology to a program in basic Behavior Analysis; development of nonclinical applied behavior analysis within the Behavior Analysis program; establishment of a joint graduate program with Educational Psychology; establishment of a Community/Systems graduate program; and organization of numerous conferences. Several factors are described that seem to assure a stable role for behavior analysis in the department: a stable and supportive "culture" within the department; American Psychological Association accreditation of the clinical training; a good reputation both within the university and in psychology; and a broader community of behavior analysts and behavior therapists.

Emergent simple discrimination in children: transfer of stimulus control under non-reinforced conditions

Previous research on humans suggests that simple discriminations may emerge if both stimuli, B1 and B2, are compounded with the stimuli of a previously trained discrimination, A1 (S+) and A2 (S-), and responding to the compounds, B1A1 and B2A2, is reinforced. Two questions were addressed. First, do simple discriminations also emerge if (a) only one stimulus, B1, is compounded with a training stimulus, A1 (S+) or A2 (S-); or with both training stimuli, A1 (S+) and A2 (S-); and (b) neither B1 nor B2 is compounded with the training stimuli? Second, do simple discriminations emerge if reinforcement in the presence of the AB compounds is withheld? Normal preschool children served as subjects. The study consisted of six experiments. Transfer occurred in all experiments regardless of whether both test stimuli, one test stimulus, or none of the test stimuli were compounded with the training stimuli under non-reinforced conditions. The results can be described by the following rules: Respond to any stimulus that includes a component of a "correct" stimulus of a previous discrimination. Otherwise, respond away from the stimulus that incorporates a component from an "incorrect" stimulus of a previous discrimination. The implications of data for sensory pre-conditioning and language-based accounts are discussed.