Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior最新文献

Instrumental behavior is typically organized into bouts, with distinct behavioral processes seemingly governing within-bout response rate, bout-initiation rate, and bout length. This organization, however, may instead arise simply from the spatial proximity of the organism to the operandum at the end of each response. Two experiments used rats to test the organization of spatially extended instrumental responses into bouts and the sensitivity of bout parameters to critical manipulations. In Experiment 1, rats consecutively pressed two levers located on either side of an operant chamber, reinforced on a tandem variable-time (VT) 150-s fixed-ratio (FR) 1 schedule (Phase 1). The FR requirement was then increased (Phase 2) before food restriction was reduced (Phase 3). In Experiment 2, reinforcement was contingent on pressing a single lever or alternating between two levers in alternating multiple-schedule components. Lever pressing was then extinguished in both components. Regardless of topography, responses were organized in bouts (Experiments 1 and 2). Higher FR requirements increased bout length (Experiment 1), and the response-alternation requirement reduced within-bout response rate (Experiment 2). Both manipulations, along with reduced deprivation and extinction, reduced bout-initiation rates. These results rule out the possibility that bouts of responses emerge from the spatial proximity of terminating and initiating operants.

A search for language in nonhuman animals has intrigued psychologists and ethologists, offering insights into the evolution of human linguistic abilities. Recent findings in both ethology and behavior analysis/animal cognition highlight exciting developments. In behavior analysis, Peter J. Urcuioli (1952–2022) successfully demonstrated the phenomenon of stimulus equivalence in pigeons and proposed a theory (2008) that underlies pigeons' performance. In ethology, Suzuki and colleagues discovered that Japanese tits use two-word compositional syntax, one of the first demonstrations in animals other than humans. This article compares these two research areas to highlight their similarities and suggests future directions for studying the evolution of language and cognition in both human and nonhuman species. Written in honor of Dr. Urcuioli, this article recognizes his contributions to behavior analysis, psychology, and ethology, advancing understanding of animal cognition and its broader implications for humanity.

Children often learn the names of objects incidentally—that is without direct instruction or programmed reinforcement—simply by observing others label novel objects. A number of contextual cues have been deemed important in the development of naming such as orientation toward stimuli, pointing, linguistic prompts (e.g., “This is…”), and contiguous presentations of stimuli and sounds. Despite their significance, there has been almost no systematic investigation of these cues in behavior analysis. The current study preliminarily examines how contextual cues—such as an experimenter's eye gaze, pointing, and use of paralinguistic cues—affect naming responses. In Experiment 1, three typically developing children were administered naming tests with and without these cues using a reversal design. All participants showed improved performance with cues relative to without cues. Experiment 2 extended this by testing three autistic children with all cues, a partial set of cues, or no cues, using a reversal design. Results replicated Experiment 1, also demonstrating that partial cues were effective in facilitating naming. Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment 1 with three additional autistic participants during which test trials remained consistent across conditions in a reversal design. Further research on the contextual cues presented during naming experiences is warranted.

Renewal is a form of treatment relapse that occurs due to a change in context but in the absence of a change in contingencies. Recent prevalence data suggest that renewal may commonly occur in clinical settings, threatening the durability of treatments for decreasing problem behavior. Unfortunately, instances of renewal may also coincide with treatment integrity errors of commission in which the treatment implementer accidentally reinforces the problem behavior. Unplanned reinforcer deliveries for the problem behavior following successful treatment may result in a different form of relapse called response-dependent reinstatement. Little is known about the combined effects of renewal and response-dependent reinstatement. The current study compared the effects of renewal alone with the combined effects of renewal plus response-dependent reinstatement in two experiments. We conducted Experiment 1 in a basic laboratory with rats and Experiment 2 in a translational format with college students who engaged with a task on a touchscreen tablet device. Overall, our results suggest that relapse was worse during combined tests for renewal plus response-dependent reinstatement relative to renewal alone. We discuss the implications of our findings with respect to the treatment of problem behavior.

This experiment explored a rodent model of functional class formation by assessing the transfer of a novel discriminative function across class members. Following simple successive discrimination reversal training and consistently strong probe performance indicative of the formation of two six-member functional classes (X1–X6 and Y1–Y6), subjects were trained on a novel discrimination task to respond in the right-side port in the presence of odor X1 and in the left-side port in the presence of Y1. When rats demonstrated high accuracy on the left–right (LR) task as well as maintenance of the functional classes, LR probe sessions were conducted in which X2 or Y2 were presented on some trials as nonreinforced probes to test for transfer of the novel function (left or right responding). The LR probe sessions were conducted in this fashion for each pair of X and Y stimuli that had never been directly trained in the LR discrimination procedure. Transfer of the novel function was observed in five out of six subjects on the initial probe session, but only two rats showed consistent transfer across subsequent probes. The results offer preliminary evidence for transfer of novel function in rats and support further investigation using a similar approach.

Using the Experimental Tobacco Marketplace, we examined the effects of e-liquid freebase nicotine strength (3–24 mg/mL) and e-liquid price (US$0.25–$1.00/mL) on behavioral economic substitution for cigarettes in dual cigarette/e-cigarette (n = 41) and exclusive cigarette (n = 40) users. Subjective effects of nicotine strength were also examined. All nicotine strengths served as a substitute for combustible cigarettes, with greater substitution observed in dual users. When analyzing e-liquid volume purchased (mL), nicotine strength did not influence substitution; however, when analyzing e-liquid nicotine purchased (mg), degree of substitution increased as a function of nicotine strength. Additionally, higher nicotine strengths reduced the volume and probability of e-liquid purchasing, increased cigarette demand, and produced less favorable subjective effects than lower strengths. Increasing e-liquid price reduced e-liquid purchasing and did not influence substitution. We conclude that nicotine strength does not robustly affect the degree to which e-liquid substitutes for cigarettes, as no effect was observed in analysis of the unit of purchase most relevant to real-world sales (volume). Instead, high-strength nicotine potentially reduces the appeal and probability of purchasing e-liquid. Future work should examine these effects in nicotine salt-based e-liquids compared with freebase nicotine (used here) and in choice contexts with concurrent access to different nicotine strengths.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of interfering with verbal and visual mediation in groups that received different training sequences in the intraverbal naming task. Experiment 1 examined the effects of disrupting verbal mediation during the image-matching test. Participants were assigned to one of four groups. Two groups received tact instruction prior to intraverbal instruction (TI groups) and the other two received the opposite training sequence (IT groups). One TI and one IT group were instructed to engage in a task intended to disrupt verbal mediation during test. The disruption task did not differentially affect the groups based on instruction sequence. Experiment 2 examined the effects of disrupting visual imagery during intraverbal training. Participants were assigned to one of four groups, two TI and two IT. One TI and one IT group were instructed to engage in a task intended to disrupt visualization during intraverbal training. This disruption task differentially affected response speed during test for the IT group. Results indicate that verbal behavior at test may contribute to correct responding yet also point to the availability of an additional source of stimulus control when names are acquired prior to intraverbal training.

Discontinuing reinforcement for an operant behavior sometimes produces a transient increase in responding (i.e., an extinction burst). A matching-law-based quantitative model posits that the extinction burst results from the elimination of competition from reinforcement-related behavior with the onset of extinction. Consistent with this suggestion, retrospective case reviews in applied settings suggest reduced prevalence of the extinction burst when alternative reinforcement is available, but there has been no relevant prospective research. The present experiment used rats and methods approximating conditions in applied settings to examine the effects of alternative reinforcement magnitude on the extinction burst. Lever pressing in baseline produced a one-pellet reinforcer on a variable-interval 1.5-s schedule before a within-session transition to extinction that included no alternative reinforcement, one pellet, or six pellets of alternative reinforcement. A robust extinction burst was obtained when no alternative reinforcement was available, but the prevalence and magnitude of the extinction burst was reduced with an alternative reinforcer available, more so with the larger alternative reinforcer. The data were well described by the model. Similar prospective studies directly examining related effects in basic and applied settings could strengthen the empirical basis of current practice and further evaluate the utility of the present theoretical approach.

The purpose of this study was to test Carrigan and Sidman's (1992) hypothesis that the emergence of equivalence relations from the standard matching-to-sample (MTS) procedure is due to the exclusive acquisition of select conditional relations during training. Four groups were compared on tests of the properties of equivalence relations (reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity/equivalence) and on trials with novel stimuli replacing S+ or S− on these tests: standard MTS training; exclusive-select-relations training; exclusive-reject-relations training; and detached-MTS training, which included training on both select and reject relations. Equivalence emergence occurred more frequently in the detached-MTS group. Those in the standard-MTS group who showed equivalence emergence had test results with novel stimuli that were more similar to those in the detached-MTS group than to those in the exclusive-select group. The results suggest that compliance with the criteria for equivalence relations may mask at least two different processes. The first is pseudoequivalence, which is associated with exclusive select control. The second is the authentic formation of equivalence classes, which depends on joint select and reject control. The standard-MTS procedure seems to more frequently promote the second process.