Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior最新文献

Video games have been used in several studies to investigate problem solving. We present empirical findings from a redesigned touchscreen navigation “grid-world” procedure resembling the classic video game PacMan (hereafter, “pacman”) played by pigeons. Our objective was to develop a procedure to study insight, similar to that of Epstein et al. (1984). During Training Phase 1, pigeons learned to guide a virtual pacman across a touchscreen arena to a banana goal (triggering an “eating” animation and food delivery) and to navigate around barriers. In Training Phase 2, they learned to traverse portals that transported the pacman across the arena. Each tool was trained in a distinct context: barrier navigation with banana targets and portal use with a green dot target. Finally, we tested for functional generalization of the two learned tools in a series of novel configurations of puzzle tasks (insight tests). Results showed that some subjects were able to learn how to navigate the pacman with a high degree of control and showed evidence for functional generalization and insight.

The purpose of the present study was to verify whether the go/no-go procedure with compound stimuli would establish derived asymmetric and transitive relations between stimuli under the control of contextual cues. In Experiment 1, nonarbitrary relational training and tests established red and blue background colors as the contextual cues. Subsequently, arbitrary relational training established relations between pairs of stimuli under the control of the contextual cues. Finally, tests evaluated the emergence of new relations under contextual control. All four participants, university students, met the learning criterion during training and demonstrated the derived relations that were tested. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, without the nonarbitrary relational training and testing. All three participants also exhibited the derived performances. The effectiveness of the procedure for establishing derived relations, the implications of the necessity of nonarbitrary relational training, and the possibilities for application are discussed.

We arranged conditions of social enrichment for a group of six pigeons as part of a larger program of research concerned with an animal model of gambling. When not in their experimental sessions, the pigeons lived together in a free-flying aviary, interacting with each other and with a physical environment that included perches, nesting materials, and nesting boxes. This enabled a range of species-typical social behavior including courtship, mating, and reproductive behavior. To minimize human involvement and the potential stress of daily captures, we devised procedures whereby the pigeons could choose to exit each day by flying one-by-one on cue into a box attached to the porthole door of the aviary from which they were transported to the test apparatus for their daily experimental sessions. By the end of this training, all pigeons were consistently entering the box independently in the presence of their own distinctive cues for transport to the session, and this continued for a maintenance phase during which each pigeon chose to participate in 120 daily sessions. The findings show the power of using reinforcement-based methods to solve practical problems in animal enrichment and welfare, balancing the welfare needs of the animals with the needs of the research.

King, H. C., Perez, N., McFarland, H. K., & Kranak, M. P. (2026). The effects of discriminative stimuli on combined relapse: A preliminary human-operant investigation. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 125(1), e70080. https://doi.org/10.1002/jeab.70080

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This study examined determinants of relapse in rats within a multiple schedule signaled by three odor stimuli (S1, S2, S3). In both experiments, reinforcement was programmed for all components in Phase A, extinction in S1 was programmed in Phase B, extinction in both S1 and S2 in Phase C, and extinction in all components in Phase D. In Experiment 1, an increase of S1 responding was observed in Phase C when extinction was introduced in S2. This resurgence-like effect was not observed in Phase D when extinction was present in all three components. Experiment 2 tested whether the mitigation of relapse observed in Phase D was due to the absence of reinforcement in any component, but the results were equivocal. In Phase E, noncontingent food was delivered in the intercomponent interval or at the termination of S1. Reinstatement was generally highest in S3, which was associated with the greatest overall reinforcement amount and recency. When total reinforcement amount was equated across S1 and S2, more reinstatement was observed in the more recently reinforced component. Results demonstrate the utility of using a multiple schedule with odors to examine relapse in rats.

Decreases in alternative reinforcement and context changes are events that can lead to resurgence and renewal, respectively. Those stimulus conditions are often investigated in isolation within three-phase arrangements. Recently, studies have examined whether combined decreases in alternative reinforcement and context changes in Phase 3 produce a relapse magnitude different from the summed effects of each change in isolation. In the present study, we examined whether discriminative stimuli paired with target response extinction in Phase 2 would mitigate resurgence when both stimulus changes occurred simultaneously in Phase 3. We used a within-subjects design and exposed 11 typically developing adults to four 3-phase arrangements in a randomized sequence: ABB− (resurgence in isolation), ABA+ (renewal in isolation), ABA− (resurgence and renewal), and ABA-S^∆. Results indicated that the combined decrease in alternative reinforcement and context change in Phase 3 had a superadditive effect in five participants and an additive effect in four participants and that the discriminative stimulus significantly attenuated these interaction effects for most participants. These results are further discussed in terms of stimulus control tactics for mitigating resurgence produced by contingency and context and changes and future research on the topic of combined relapse broadly.

The Skinner box has provided a standardized method of conducting experiments on operant behavior throughout the history of behavior analysis. As technology has advanced, these operant chambers have become increasingly complex to allow for the study of new stimuli, behavior, and outcomes. The present article takes this variability one step further by advocating for the use of video game engines in the study of operant behavior in humans. Game engines provide high levels of flexibility, control, and realism as well as continuous behavioral tracking, dynamic stimulus presentation, and complex reinforcement schedules that greatly expand the range of research questions that can be addressed. Importantly, the potential for increasing stimulus, response, and outcome variability provides the basis for assessing and maximizing the generalizability of operant and related principles. This article illustrates the use of video game engines to study causal inference, delay discounting, loot boxes, foraging, and multiplayer dynamics. Adopting game engines in behavioral research not only expands the scope of behavior analysis but also increases its relevance to real-world behavior, offering a promising path forward for innovation.

A common method for studying derived relations is the matching-to-sample (MTS) preparation. However, certain aspects of its training format potentially hinder the emergence of new relations. The training version of the implicit relational assessment procedure (training-IRAP) may present an alternative. Our primary objective involved comparing the effectiveness of delayed MTS(2s) and training-IRAP procedures on participant yield. The secondary objective involved comparing mean number of training blocks per procedure. Given additional components in the standard training-IRAP not found in MTS, changes were made to the former, producing the modified training-IRAP and delayed modified training-IRAP(2s). Sixty-eight typically developing students participated in a between-subjects design. Two classes comprising five abstract stimuli were employed. Yield was analyzed at three levels, 91.67, 83.33, and 79% correct responses, with at least 87.5% correct responses at baseline mixed-block maintenance. All participants maintained baseline criterion during tests. At the three levels of analyses, the modified versions of training-IRAP produced higher yield, followed by DMTS(2s) and then the standard training-IRAP. Mean number of blocks to complete training phases was lowest for the delayed MTS(2s) and delayed modified training-IRAP(2s) groups. Limitations and implications of the findings toward greater precision, scope, and depth in conceptual, experimental, and applied settings are discussed.

Variables affecting scheduled-induced drinking (SID) have been widely studied. Previous experience with other food schedules can slow or prevent acquisition of SID, and its rate can decrease once it has developed if the conditions of the experimental sessions change. These findings conform to the idea that the distribution of behaviors during interreinforcement intervals depends on the occurrence of other behaviors. The goal here was to investigate the effect of interrupting access to water on the subsequent maintenance of SID when access to water was restored. First, in Phase A, rats developed SID under three different fixed-interval (FI) schedules. Then, in Phase B, access to water was removed in the conditioning chambers while food continued to be delivered under the same schedules. Last, when access to water was restored, rats that continued under the food-reinforcement schedule showed lower levels of SID than subjects that remained in their home cages throughout Phase B. Competition between licking and lever pressing was observed, particularly during short FI schedules. These data expand previous findings on behavioral history effects on SID and suggest that SID is part of behavioral patterns developed during interreinforcement intervals in which distribution of behaviors depends on occurrence of all other behaviors.

Resurgence is an increase in a suppressed target behavior following a worsening of conditions for a more recently reinforced alternative behavior. Prior research shows that exposure to equal-duration sessions of alternative reinforcement availability versus unavailability during treatment (i.e., contingency discrimination training; CDT) reduces resurgence. Clinically, minimizing exposure to extinction while maintaining the resurgence-mitigating effects of CDT would be desirable. This experiment examined the effects of reduced off-session durations by exposing groups of rats to different ratios of off:on session durations: All On (0 min: 30 min), CDT 1:1 (30 min: 30 min), CDT 1:2 (15 min: 30 min), CDT 1:6 (5 min: 30 min), and CDT escalate (i.e., [Esc] off-session duration increased across sessions). Resurgence decreased exponentially with “off” session duration, with CDT 1:2 reducing resurgence and both CDT 1:1 and CDT Esc eliminating resurgence while generating control of alternative behavior by the prevailing reinforcement contingencies, without increasing the total number of target responses during treatment. Resurgence as choice in context theory described the data well with the assumption that the effect of the signaling properties of the reinforcement contingencies themselves increases linearly with the off:on duration ratio, as is true with the S−/S+ ratio in other discriminations.