Acquisition of Key-Pecking via Autoshaping as a Function of Prior Experience: "Learned Laziness"?

Translations in Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing: Autoshaping of Learner Vocalizations

Stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) is a procedure used by behavior analysis practitioners that capitalizes on respondent conditioning processes to elicit vocalizations. These procedures usually are implemented only after other, more customary methods (e.g., standard echoic training via modeling) have been exhausted. Unfortunately, SSP itself has mixed research support, probably because certain as-yet-unidentified procedural variations are more effective than others. Even when SSP produces (or increases) vocalizations, its effects can be short-lived. Although specific features of SSP differ across published accounts, fundamental characteristics include presentation of a vocal stimulus proximal with presentation of a preferred item. In the present article, we draw parallels between SSP procedures and autoshaping, review factors shown to affect autoshaping, and interpret autoshaping research for suggested SSP tests and applications. We then call for extended use and reporting of SSP in behavior-analytic treatments. Finally, three bridges created by this article are identified: basic-applied, respondent-operant, and behavior analysis with other sciences.

Exposure to Non-Contingent Light Change in Separate Sessions Prior to Light-Contingent Bar Pressing

The reported experiment investigated the effects of prior exposure to non-contigent light change over five sessions on subsequent light-contingent bar pressing (LCBP) behaviour. Prior exposure reduced the frequency of LCBP over the initial sessions, but responding then increased so that the effect was no longer evident in the middle and terminal LCBP sessions. That is, prior exposure to non-contingent light change affected LCBP by retarding its acquisition. It was argued that this overall result is consistent with previous research on the effects of prior experience of reinforcement being non-contingent on subsequent response-contingent behaviour, where the effect has sometimes been characterized as “learned helplessness”. This previous research, however, has concentrated on the strong conventional reinforcers such as shock avoidance and food. The present findings show that intrinsically motivated behaviour with a weak reinforcer is also affected by prior experience of the reinforcer as an uncontrollable event.

An Examination of Autoshaped Keypecking in a Dark Chamber

Three experiments investigated critical variables influencing the development of autoshaping in a dark chamber. The context in which magazine-training occurred, length of intertrial interval, and CS intensity were the independent variables. Performance was best following magazine-training in the light; 60-sec. intertrial interval was better than 25; and little responding developed with a bright CS. These results are discussed with reference to the cue-localization hypothesis and a context-blocking effect.

Efeitos da exposição a estímulos aversivos e apetitivos incontroláveis sobre o comportamento verbal em contingências de reforço positivo

Foram analisados efeitos de diferentes histórias de incontrolabilidade por perda ou ganho de pontos sobre o desempenho posterior de participantes humanos na construção de frases. Inicialmente, os participantes podiam ganhar ou perder pontos independentemente de qualquer característica da frase construída. Posteriormente, recebiam pontos por construir frases iniciadas apenas pelo pronome "ele". Os resultados mostram que a exposição à incontrolabilidade pode dificultar condições posteriores de novas aprendizagens sob reforçamento positivo. Interessantemente, essas dificuldades foram menos acentuadas e, em certos casos, até mesmo superadas, no caso de uma história de exposição a ganhos incontroláveis de pontos. Em contrapartida, no caso de uma história de perdas incontroláveis de pontos, aprendizagens subsequentes sob reforço positivo tenderam a ser prejudicadas. Esses resultados contribuem para os estudos de incontrolabilidade e desamparo aprendido, em particular por apresentar alternativas metodológicas passíveis de aplicação a respostas verbais em humanos.

Effects of varying the percentage of key illuminations paired with food in a positive automaintenance procedure

Three pigeons were exposed to a positive automaintenance procedure in which each trial began with a brief tone followed by the transillumination of a small central area of the response key for 10 sec. Key illumination was followed by food on 100%, 50%, 25%, 12.5%, and 0% of the trials. The effects depended on the dependent variable observed. The mean rate of responding during key illumination rapidly increased and then decreased slightly as the percentage of key illuminations paired with food increased. The number of key illuminations during which at least one response occurred increased as a negatively accelerating function of the percentage of key illuminations paired with food, and the mean latency to the first response during the key illuminations decreased as a negatively decelerating function of the percentage condition. The mean rate of sustained responding during key illumination was not systematically affected by changes in the percentage conditions.

Autoshaping, random control, and omission training in the rat

The role of the stimulus-reinforcer contingency in the development and maintenance of lever contact responding was studied in hooded rats. In Experiment I, three groups of experimentally naive rats were trained either on autoshaping, omission training, or a random-control procedure. Subjects trained by the autoshaping procedure responded more consistently than did either random-control or omission-trained subjects. The probability of at least one lever contact per trial was slightly higher in subjects trained by the omission procedure than by the random-control procedure. However, these differences were not maintained during extended training, nor were they evident in total lever-contact frequencies. When omission and random-control subjects were switched to the autoshaping condition, lever contacts increased in all animals, but a pronounced retardation was observed in omission subjects relative to the random-control subjects. In addition, subjects originally exposed to the random-control procedure, and later switched to autoshaping, acquired more rapidly than naive subjects that were exposed only on the autoshaping procedure. In Experiment II, subjects originally trained by an autoshaping procedure were exposed either to an omission, a random-control, or an extinction procedure. No differences were observed among the groups either in the rate at which lever contacts decreased or in the frequency of lever contacts at the end of training. These data implicate prior experience in the interpretation of omission-training effects and suggest limitations in the influence of stimulus-reinforcer relations in autoshaping.

Acquisition of the autoshaped key peck as a function of amount of preliminary magazine training

Three experiments evaluated the effect of magazine training on acquisition of the pigeon's key peck during autoshaping. In Experiment I, pigeons were exposed to two days of extended magazine training, followed on the third day by keylight-only presentations. All pigeons pecked the keylight early in the keylight-only session. Experiment II examined the relationship between the number of magazine-training trials and trials to the first peck. Pigeons were given either 0, 3, 10, or 25 magazine-training trials followed by the standard autoshaping procedure. The number of trials to the first peck was related to the number of magazine-training trials. In Experiment III, pigeons were exposed to the standard autoshaping procedure without prior magazine training. The data from Experiment III suggested that key pecking will occur only after the response of eating from the lighted hopper has occurred. Taken together, these results suggest that initial magazine training is an important variable in autoshaping. Key pecking is discussed as a generalized consummatory response.

Response acquisition by Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) with delayed visual reinforcement

Male Siamese fighting fish, Betta splendens, swam through a ring in an aquarium, breaking a photocell beam and initiating an unsignaled, resetting delay interval. Following delays of 0 s, 10 s, or 25 s, a 15-s mirror presentation released an aggressive display by the fish. Swimming through the ring increased in the absence of either a period of acclimatization to the reinforcer (analogous to magazine training when appetitive reinforcers are used) or explicit training of the response by the experimenters. Response rates were a decreasing function of delay duration. Other fish exposed to a schedule of response-independent mirror presentations failed to acquire and maintain the response. The results demonstrate the robustness and generality of the phenomenon of response acquisition with delayed reinforcement. They further qualify earlier observations about behavioral mechanisms involved in the phenomenon.

Autoshaping as a function of prior food presentations

Young chickens were given 1, 10, 100, or 1000 presentations of grain in a hopper. Subsequently, the key was illuminated before each presentation of grain to study autoshaping of the key-peck response. The number of keylight-grain pairings before a bird first pecked the lighted key was found to be a U-shaped function of the number of prior food-only presentations, with pecks occurring significantly sooner after 100 food-only trials than after any of the other values. Two of five chicks at the 100-trial value pecked on the first illumination of the key. Experiment II showed further that when a series of food-only trials (no keylight) preceded keylight-only trials (no food) 30% of the chicks pecked the illuminated key. Experiment III extended the generality of first-trial pecking to pigeons. After preliminary training with food-only, two of five pigeons pecked on the first illumination of a key. The results suggest a close relationship between autoshaping and pseudo-conditioning.

Controls for and constraints on auto-shaping

Auto-shaping the pigeon's key-peck response was examined as a respondent conditioning procedure with the use of Rescorla's truly-random control procedure. In the first experiment, pigeons received presentations of brief light on the response key and brief presentations of food where the light and the food were independently presented. All birds failed to key peck after many light and food presentations, but explicit pairing of the light and food rapidly conditioned pecking to the light. Experiment 2 showed that even when an independent light/food presentation schedule was reduced to variable-time 30 sec, additional naive birds would not key peck and only one bird pecked when the schedules were variable-time 15 sec. A third experiment examined an explicit-unpairing control procedure, where the light and food were not only presented on independent schedules but were also separated by a minimum time, and found that auto-shaping did not occur. A fourth experiment investigated a number of control procedures and found them ineffective. A fifth experiment investigated the effects of a physical separation of the locus of the response key and the food dispenser, and a sixth experiment investigated using a tone in place of the light. It was concluded that pecking is generated by auto-shaping procedures only when an intermittently presented keylight is regularly paired with food.

Individual differences in the attribution of incentive salience to reward-related cues: Implications for addiction

Drugs of abuse acquire different degrees of control over thoughts and actions based not only on the effects of drugs themselves, but also on predispositions of the individual. Those individuals who become addicted are unable to shift their thoughts and actions away from drugs and drug-associated stimuli. Thus in addicts, exposure to places or things (cues) that has been previously associated with drug-taking often instigates renewed drug-taking. We and others have postulated that drug-associated cues acquire the ability to maintain and instigate drug-taking behavior in part because they acquire incentive motivational properties through Pavlovian (stimulus-stimulus) learning. In the case of compulsive behavioral disorders, including addiction, such cues may be attributed with pathological incentive value ("incentive salience"). For this reason, we have recently begun to explore individual differences in the tendency to attribute incentive salience to cues that predict rewards. When discrete cues are associated with the non-contingent delivery of food or drug rewards some animals come to quickly approach and engage the cue even if it is located at a distance from where the reward will be delivered. In these animals the reward-predictive cue itself becomes attractive, eliciting approach towards it, presumably because it is attributed with incentive salience. Animals that develop this type of conditional response are called "sign-trackers". Other animals, "goal-trackers", do not approach the reward-predictive cue, but upon cue presentation they immediately go to the location where food will be delivered (the "goal"). For goal-trackers the reward-predictive cue is not attractive, presumably because it is not attributed with incentive salience. We review here preliminary data suggesting that these individual differences in the tendency to attribute incentive salience to cues predictive of reward may confer vulnerability or resistance to compulsive behavioral disorders, including addiction. It will be important, therefore, to study how environmental, neurobiological and genetic interactions determine the extent to which individuals attribute incentive value to reward-predictive stimuli.

Variabilidade e repetição operantes aprendidas após estímulos aversivos incontroláveis

O objetivo desse experimento foi verificar se a experiência prévia com eventos aversivos incontroláveis interfere na aprendizagem da variabilidade ou da repetição operantes. Ratos (n=45) tiveram a reposta de pressão à barra reforçada positivamente em CRF e FR 4, sendo depois divididos em três grupos, expostos a choques elétricos controláveis, incontroláveis ou nenhum choque. Em seguida, receberam nove a 12 sessões de reforçamento positivo para seqüências de quatro respostas de pressão a barra, em uma caixa com duas barras (direita - D e esquerda - E): metade dos sujeitos foi reforçada por variar (VAR) e metade por repetir uma mesma seqüência (REP). Os resultados mostraram que o tratamento prévio com choques não interferiu na aprendizagem dos padrões de variabilidade e de repetição, que foram dependentes apenas da contingência em vigor. Esses dados são contrários ao previsto pela hipótese do desamparo aprendido.

Acquisition of cocaine self-administration with unsignaled delayed reinforcement in rhesus monkeys

Six experimentally naive rhesus monkeys produced 0.01 mg/kg/infusion cocaine by lever pressing under a tandem fixed-ratio 1 differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior schedule. One lever press initiated an unsignaled 15- or 30-s delay culminating in cocaine delivery. Each press made during the delay reset the delay interval. With two exceptions, responding was acquired and maintained at higher rates than responding on a second (inoperative) lever. For the exceptions, a cancellation contingency was arranged in which each formerly inoperative-lever response reset the tandem schedule. This manipulation reduced presses on the inoperative lever. Subsequently, the consequences of responding on the two levers were reversed, and the monkeys again responded at higher rates on the operative lever. As a comparison, 3 additional experimentally naive monkeys received response-independent cocaine deliveries. Although lever pressing was observed, it extinguished and was subsequently reestablished under the tandem schedule. The results suggest that although response-reinforcer contiguity is not required for cocaine to acquire reinforcing functions, a response-reinforcer relation appears necessary.

O desamparo aprendido revisitado: estudos com animais

O desamparo aprendido tem sido definido como a dificuldade de aprendizagem apresentada por indivíduos que tiveram experiência prévia com estímulos aversivos incontroláveis. O objetivo deste trabalho é fazer uma revisão crítica dos estudos sobre o desamparo aprendido, com animais. Nessa análise, são considerados aspectos conceituais e metodológicos dos estudos em questão e as interpretações teóricas sobre esse efeito comportamental. Aborda-se a evolução histórica desses estudos, bem como alguns aspectos controversos das publicações que se acumularam ao longo de quatro décadas de pesquisa. A associação do desamparo aprendido com a depressão clínica é analisada criticamente, destacando-se a necessidade de maior rigor metodológico e conceitual nos estudos da área.

Aprendizagem de fuga após estímulos apetitivos incontroláveis

O presente experimento teve por objetivo investigar se estímulos apetitivos não-contingentes (incontroláveis) produzem interferência na aprendizagem de fuga (desamparo aprendido). Ratos foram divididos em três grupos (n = 8), denominados contingente (C), não contingente (NC) e ingênuo (I). Na primeira fase (tratamento), os animais do grupo C receberam reforçamento positivo (água) sob contingência de CRF, FR5 e FR20. A cada reforço liberado a um sujeito do grupo C, era liberada uma gota de água (não-contingente) a um sujeito do grupo NC. Os animais do grupo ingênuo (I) permaneceram no biotério. Na fase seguinte (teste), os animais foram submetidos a choques que poderiam ser desligados em função da resposta de saltar na shuttlebox. Todos os sujeitos aprenderam igualmente a resposta de fuga, independentemente do tratamento prévio recebido. Esses resultados sugerem que estímulos apetitivos incontroláveis não produzem o desamparo aprendido. Discute-se a generalização do efeito entre contextos aversivo e apetitivo.

The effects of behavioral history on response acquisition with immediate and delayed reinforcement

Effects of prior exposure to the experimental chamber with levers present or absent and variable-time (VT) 60-s water deliveries arranged during one, five, or no 1-hr sessions were examined in rats during a 6-hr response-acquisition session in which presses on one lever produced water delivery immediately or after a 15-s resetting delay, and presses on the other lever canceled scheduled water deliveries. Response acquisition was (a) slower to occur when water deliveries were delayed, (b) most consistent in groups that had received five VT sessions, and (c) impaired by the presence of levers only when there had been five VT sessions and water deliveries were delayed during the acquisition session.

Stimulus control of predatory behavior by the Iberian wall lizard (Podarcis hispanica, Sauria, Lacertidae): Effects of familiarity with prey

The authors examine the relative roles of vision and chemoreception and the influence of previous experience with prey on the predatory behavior of Iberian wall lizards (Podarcis hispanica). Experiment 1 compared the responses to visual, chemical, and a combination of visual and chemical cues of a familiar prey by 2 groups of lizards that had been kept in captivity for either 3 months or 21 days. Experiment 2 assessed the responses of lizards kept in the laboratory for more than 3 months to a novel prey species. The results reveal that feeding on a prey species affects the lizards' responses to chemical stimuli from that prey. The response to chemical cues of a novel prey requires a 1st-feeding experience with that prey. Lizards that have been fed the same prey species for several months cease responding to the chemical stimuli of that particular prey.

Recent learned helplessness/irrelevance research in Japan: conceptual framework and some experiments on learned irrelevance

In Section 1, a conceptual framework within which to study learned helplessness (LH), learned irrelevance (LI) and the related phenomena is introduced. In Section 2, three rat experiments on LI conducted in our laboratory using a conditioned suppression of licking preparation are introduced. In Experiment 1, the phenomena of LI and general LI were confirmed. In Experiment 2, random presentations of CST/US were found to interfere with subsequent initial excitatory conditioning to CSL under random CSL/US presentations. In Experiment 3, pre-paired presentations of CSN or CST with US before random CST/US presentations was found to have an attenuating effect on the development of general LI.

The effects of operant control over food and light on the behaviour of domestic hens

In intensive farming systems, the animals have little control over important elements in their environments. For instance, food of a pre-set type is delivered at set times, and the lighting schedule is controlled by the farmer. It has been suggested that low levels of environmental control over important events may reduce welfare by increasing passivity and stress. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of providing control over food and lighting additional to a restricted regime on the behaviour of small groups of laying hens (Gallus gallus domesticus). Twelve pens, each containing five birds, were paired to give six controlling and six non-controlling pens. These pairs of pens were yoked, such that birds in the controlling pens were able to make an operant response to gain access to extra food and light, whilst the yoked pens also received these outcomes but were unable to control their occurrence. The birds were kept continuously in the experimental conditions for 9 weeks. Records were made of general behaviour and activity, aggression and plumage damage scores, every 2 weeks. Data on key-pecking and egg production were continuously recorded throughout the experiment. The controlling birds used the operant keys to open the feeder for an average of 92min and to turn on the light for 46min per pen per day. The high number of key-pecks indicates that the birds were motivated to make use of the keys to control access to additional food and light. The non-controlling treatment pens showed significantly higher levels of preening and resting. Contrary to previous studies the use of operant feeders in this experiment did not induce a high level of feather pecking or aggressive interactions, as there was no significant difference between treatments. During the experiment the non-controlling hens laid significantly more eggs than the controlling hens. The results suggest that lack of control over these particular environmental events induced mild stress in the non-controlling pens of birds, and that further investigations into the effect of lack of control on welfare would be warranted.

What's elementary about associative learning?

The scientific study of associative learning began nearly 100 years ago with the pioneering studies of Thorndike and Pavlov, and it continues today as an active area of research and theory. Associative learning should be the foundation for our understanding of other forms of behavior and cognition in human and nonhuman animals. The laws of associative learning are complex, and many modern theorists posit the involvement of attention, memory, and information processing in such basic conditioning phenomena as overshadowing and blocking, and the effects of stimulus preexposure on later conditioning. An unresolved problem for learning theory is distinguishing the formation of associations from their behavioral expression. This and other problems will occupy future generations of behavioral scientists interested in the experimental investigation of associative learning. Neuroscientists and cognitive scientists will both contribute to and benefit from that effort in the next 100 years of inquiry.

Injured worker helplessness: Critical relationships and systems level approach for intervention

An appropriate paradigm for explaining the evident problems of motivating the workers' compensation claimant toward occupational recovery may be found in the learned helplessness model. This article examines the critical relationships in the workers' compensation system and the potential for development of the injured worker helplessness within that system. The author offers the learned helplessness model as an alternative framework through which injured worker behavior can be explained and understood. It is suggested that the non-contingent rewards and the uncontrollable dynamics characteristic of workers' compensation systems lead to claimants' learning helplessness. Finally, a total quality managed disability prevention system is offered as the organization's best approach to reducing the likelihood of learned helplessness.

Control of responding during stimuli that precede transitions in reinforcement frequency

Pigeons' responses were reinforced on a variant of a mixed variable-interval extinction schedule of reinforcement in which the transition to the higher reinforcement rate was signaled by a trace stimulus projected on the response key prior to the onset of the component correlated with food delivery. In the first of two experiments, the duration of the trace stimulus preceding the component correlated with food delivery was varied from 1.5 to 50.0 s and in the second experiment, the reinforcement frequency in the same component was varied from 10 to 60 reinforcers per hour. Pigeons pecked at the trace stimulus preceding the onset of the component correlated with food delivery even though responding was not reinforced in its presence and only one of the changes in reinforcement rate (i.e., from extinction to reinforcement) was signaled. The rate of pecking during the trace stimulus was a function of its duration but not of the reinforcement frequency in the following component. Higher rates generally occurred at the shorter trace-stimulus durations. Component responding following the offset of the trace stimulus was under discriminative control of the trace stimulus whether or not responding occurred in the presence of the trace stimulus.

The "learned pain syndrome": decoding a patient's pain signals

Learned pain is a distinct entity with its own set of symptoms, diagnostic criteria, and treatment methods. Recognition of the condition by health professionals is necessary for proper patient management and will facilitate further research and appropriate training.