Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior最新文献

The present study examined pigeons' token accumulation and food reinforcer demand within a token economy using a behavioral economic approach. Six pigeons were exposed to a token reinforcement procedure, in which responses on a token-production key produced tokens. When at least one token was earned, an exchange-production key became simultaneously available, and at this juncture, pigeons chose between earning tokens or producing the exchange period during which accumulated tokens could be exchanged for food reinforcers. Token accumulation was examined as a function of five economically relevant experimental variables: the token-production ratio (labor productivity), exchange-production ratio (transaction costs), token-exchange price, the number of free tokens (nonlabor income), and token-reinforcement magnitude (wage). Results revealed that token accumulation varied systematically with the token-production ratio, the exchange-production ratio, and token-reinforcement magnitude but was less affected by the token-exchange price and the number of free tokens. In addition, consistent with behavioral economic models of demand, overall food consumption decreased consistently under higher response costs regardless of whether the costs were defined in terms of tokens, exchange periods, or food. Collectively, these findings show how token reinforcement systems apply to everyday economic behaviors such as saving, spending, and demand, providing a bridge between reinforcement theory and behavioral economics.

Clinicians often implement differential reinforcement of alternative behavior with synthesized alternative reinforcement, which involves the delivery of multiple, qualitatively different reinforcers contingent on a single alternative response. Previous research has demonstrated that downshifts in alternative reinforcement cause resurgence. We evaluated whether suspending one of the reinforcers from a synthesized alternative reinforcement contingency produces resurgence and compared this with the amount of resurgence when all reinforcers were suspended. First, we conducted a three-phase resurgence evaluation with three groups of rats. In Phase 1, target responding produced a single reinforcer (i.e., food or sucrose). In Phase 2, rats received two qualitatively different reinforcers (i.e., food and sucrose) contingent on alternative responding. In Phase 3, groups of rats experienced different downshifts from synthesized alternative reinforcement. Groups experienced suspension of both reinforcers (complete downshift), suspension of one reinforcer (partial downshift), or no change (no downshift). The partial downshift produced resurgence, and the complete downshift produced more resurgence than the partial downshift. Second, we conducted a follow-up analysis by implementing partial downshifts within a multiple-baseline design. The follow-up analysis provided additional support that partial downshifts in synthesized alternative reinforcement produce resurgence. We discuss both the theoretical and applied implications of these results.

We generated analogies based on observed spatiotemporal relations. In Experiment 1, six adults observed arbitrary stimuli in a spatiotemporal sequence (A1 followed by A2, A3, A4, A5 and then A1). Then they were taught to select the first stimulus following the sample in the presence of one contextual cue X (e.g., given A2, select A3) and to select the stimulus immediately preceding that stimulus in the presence of another contextual cue Y (e.g., given A2, select A1). Finally, they received a conditional discrimination (CD) probe with three-stimuli samples (3-SS-CD) in which the sequential relation between the first two stimuli set the occasion for selecting a comparison with the same relation to the third stimulus (A2A3 A1, select A2). Most participants demonstrated emergence. In Experiment 2, the procedure included a second set of B stimuli and a CD probe with A and B stimuli (i.e., A4, A5, B2, as sample and Bs as comparisons). All eight participants demonstrated emergence. Participants also observed new sequences with novel stimuli, without X or Y, and demonstrated emergence of the 3-SS-CD. The results demonstrated a type of analogical responding close to that observed in traditional analogy tasks and found basic learning processes involved in it.

Effort discounting refers to the decrease in the subjective value of a reward as the required effort to obtain it increases. This study examined the effects of effort sequence and consequence type on effort discounting in human participants. In Experiment 1, all participants completed an effort-based task-pedaling a stationary bicycle-with potentially real consequences, under both increasing and decreasing effort sequences. Shallower effort discounting and more nonsystematic data were observed in the decreasing sequence condition. In Experiment 2, participants experienced increasing, decreasing, and random effort sequences as well as hypothetical and potentially real consequences. Participants exhibited steeper effort discounting under potentially real consequences, but there was no effect of the sequence of effort presentation. We discuss the importance of assessing nonsystematic data points for conclusions regarding the effects of other variables. Additionally, we discuss the results in relation to prior studies on delay and effort discounting, particularly concerning the role of consequence type.

Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) reduces challenging behavior and increases alternative responding when implemented as designed. Deviations from treatment protocols (i.e., fidelity errors) reduce the efficacy of DRA. To understand the effects of fidelity errors during DRA, researchers have used multielement and reversal designs but have not directly compared effects of fidelity errors across designs. The present experiments compared effects of fidelity errors on DRA using reversal and multielement designs in a translational arrangement. Twelve undergraduates experienced a computer program in which alternations between DRA with 100% fidelity (DRA 100%) and DRA with 50% fidelity (DRA 50%) occurred according to both multielement and reversal designs. Six participants experienced signaled conditions (Experiment 1), and six participants experienced unsignaled conditions (Experiment 2). Results replicated previous reduced-fidelity research in that more target responding occurred during DRA 50% relative to DRA 100%. This was true regardless of design type and presence of signals. However, when DRA 50% and DRA 100% were rapidly alternated without signals, participants engaged in less target responding during DRA 50% and more target responding during DRA 100%. Implications of the present experiments include considerations related to design selection and presence of signals within multielement designs during evaluations with procedural fidelity manipulations.

Identifying component skills necessary for the emergence of intraverbal tacts, or verbal responses under control of both a verbal and nonverbal antecedent stimulus, is important because the occasion for this skill often occurs in a child's everyday life. Previous research has begun to identify a sequence of component skills that may lead to the emergence of multiply controlled intraverbals. However, it remains unclear which component skills are necessary versus sufficient. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of teaching a subset of component skills, element tact and intraverbal categorization, to identify the skills sufficient for emergence of intraverbal tacts. A multiple-probe design was used to assess intraverbal-tact emergence for five participants diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder during pre-and post-element-tact and intraverbal-categorization teaching sessions. Emergence of intraverbal tacts was also assessed during recombinative-generalization probes. Results indicated that intraverbal tacts emerged for all participants following acquisition of element tacts and intraverbal categorizations. As no other component skills were taught, these data suggest that these component skills may be sufficient for intraverbal tact emergence. Implications for identifying necessary component skills and directions for future research are discussed.

This study evaluated the effects of synchronous music reinforcement on walking speed in a laboratory-based treadmill preparation. Thirty undergraduate students walked on a nonmotorized treadmill for a 15-min session consisting of an initial continuous music component, three synchronous reinforcement components, and a final continuous music component. During the initial continuous music component (CM 1), participants received continuous access to self-selected music, and their mean speed was used to set individualized criteria for the synchronous components. In the synchronous components, music was delivered contingent on maintaining a speed of 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 m/s above CM 1, respectively. During the final component, music was provided continuously. Results showed that 23 of 30 participants (76.7%) demonstrated schedule control by maintaining walking speed above criterion for the majority of synchronous components. Heart rate increased across components in accordance with speed requirements, and ratings of perceived exertion indicated moderate physical effort. Notably, several participants who did not demonstrate schedule control showed increased walking speed during the final continuous music component. Overall, the findings indicate that synchronous reinforcement using participant-selected music can produce stepwise increases in walking speed, supporting its potential as a socially significant and low-cost strategy to promote aerobic physical activity.

The primary purpose was to study how the expansion of equivalence classes is documented by sorting tests. In two experiments with 40 adult participants, there were three phases of training and testing of emergent relations. In the first phase, the participants were trained on 12 conditional discriminations arranged as a linear series training structure (A➔B➔C➔D➔E) followed by a sorting test. The second phase included simple discrimination training of C stimuli. The training comprised different numbers of key presses, and these numbers were used as F stimuli in the expansion test of the existing classes. The final phase contained sorting and matching-to-sample (MTS) tests. The two experiments differed in the number of key presses in the simple discrimination training and stimuli used as F stimuli in Phase 2 and the order of sorting and MTS tests in Phase 3. The main findings of the two experiments were that 100% of the participants sorted the stimuli correctly in the first phase, 83% (25 of 30) of the participants showed expansion and sorted the stimuli in the second phase, and finally, 90% (36 of 40) of the participants responded correctly on the MTS test in the third phase.

When multiple stimuli appear to signal behavior–reinforcer contingencies, control may be divided between those stimuli. Such divided stimulus control depends in part on the value of the outcome to the organism, with stimuli signaling more valuable outcomes exerting stronger control. The present experiment investigated how divided control by past and present stimuli interacts with outcome value. Pigeons responded in a concurrent-chains procedure in which one terminal link ended with two food deliveries after 8 s and the other link ended with six food deliveries after 48 s. Outcomes were signaled by the response producing terminal-link entry (past behavior) as well as keylight stimuli during initial links (past signals) and terminal links (present signals). When these sources of stimulus control conflicted, past behavior exerted strong control over terminal-link responding, overshadowing control by past signals. Some control by present signals was also evident, particularly at later times in terminal links. Additionally, stimuli signaling pigeons' more preferred outcome (smaller-sooner reinforcer) exerted stronger control than stimuli signaling the less preferred (larger-later) outcome. These findings highlight the importance of subjective outcome value in stimulus control and demonstrate that egocentric stimuli can exert enduring behavioral control even when other less transient discriminative stimuli occurred in the recent past or present.

Renewal occurs when a behavior is reduced in one context but reemerges when transitioning to a different context, which poses challenges for behavioral interventions. This preclinical research evaluated whether multiple-context training could mitigate renewal of operant behavior eliminated with extinction and differential reinforcement of an alternative behavior (DRA + EXT) in humans recruited through crowdsourcing. In each of two experiments, three groups received conditioning, with point deliveries as reinforcers for a target-button press within Context A. During DRA + EXT, multiple-context training arranged nine alternations among three contexts (BCD) for one group, while the other two groups experienced equal DRA + EXT exposure but within a single context (B). During testing, the control group remained in Context B while multiple- and single-context groups transitioned to either the original Context A (Experiment 1) or a novel Context E (Experiment 2). Both experiments provided the first evidence suggesting multiple-context training can mitigate renewal with DRA + EXT contingencies. However, the present findings joined others showing multiple-context training slowed reductions in target responding during DRA + EXT compared with single-context training, suggesting trade-offs in the use of this mitigation strategy.