The Psychological Record最新文献

Science, understood to be the behavior of scientists, falls within the purview of behavior analysis. All scientists use scientific instruments to study a natural phenomenon, and for the behavior analyst, perhaps no tool is more important than the graph used to show changes in level, trend, and variability, and upon which behavior analysts make data-based decisions. Modern behaviorism as we know it dates back to the development of the cumulative recorder first developed in the 1930s. Though revolutionary to the science of behavior, two-dimensional graphs may be limited in application for analyzing complex human behavior. In the current article, we conceptualize verbal behavior as a multidimensional field of environmental relations, and introduce the use of multi-axial radar charts for its visual and quantitative analysis. From there, we survey the use of radar charts toward advancing a behavior-analytic understanding of human language and cognition. We demonstrate the use of radar charts for calculating simple shape descriptors as a quantitative measure of dynamic interactants, and show how they can be used to measure change over time.

Response disequilibrium theory, an extension of the response deprivation hypothesis, proposes that behavior-change is due to disruptions in an organism's baseline levels of responding. This theory challenges the notion of distinct stimuli as reinforcers or punishers and instead emphasizes the role of instrumental and contingent activities. The present study aimed to test the predictions of response disequilibrium theory by replicating Heth and Warren’s, Animal Learning & Behavior, 6, 294–300, (1978) experiment using a modernized apparatus. Sixteen undergraduate psychology students participated in the experiment, which included a familiarization period, baseline periods, and a contingency period. During the contingency period, the instrumental activity was the activation of a video that resulted in a deficit or excess of audio relative to baseline. According to response disequilibrium theory, a deficit will produce a reinforcement effect whereas an excess will produce a punishment effect. The results supported the predictions of response disequilibrium theory, as instrumental video activity increased for participants in the deficit condition and decreased for participants in the excess condition. In addition, the study revealed a strong correlation between the size of disequilibrium and the magnitude of behavior change. These findings further support the use of disequilibrium models to a priori identify effective contingency arrangements in both research and practice. Informal applications of the Premack principle may be supplanted with the precision of a formal model of reinforcement and punishment in response disequilibrium theory.

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of point-loss response cost on the responding under fixed-interval (FI) schedules in humans. Responses by undergraduates produced points exchangeable for money arranged according to an FI 90-s schedule (Experiment 1) or a multiple FI 30-s FI 60-s FI 90-s schedule (Experiment 2). Following this baseline, a contingency of response cost, under which responses lost points, was introduced then withdrawn. Response rates with the response cost were lower than those during the baseline. Following termination of the response cost contingency, the final response rates were again lower than those during the baseline (Experiments 1 and 2). Such low-rate responding was not found for participants who were exposed only to no-cost FI schedules (Experiment 2). These results demonstrate an irreversible effect of response cost. Generality and implications of the findings were discussed in the context of the research in punishment and human schedule performance.

An equivalence class can contain nominally meaningless stimuli that become related to each other by training and testing. It can also contain at least one meaningful stimulus. The likelihood of equivalence class formation is enhanced by the inclusion of a meaningful stimulus as a class member. It is traditional for stimulus meaningfulness to be characterized by its hedonic, denotative, and connotative properties. Thus, class enhancement can be attributed to these properties. In addition, the hedonic and connotative properties of the meaningful class member generalize to the other class members and is determined by the nodal structure of the class. Apart from hedonic, denotative, and connotative content of a meaningful stimulus, that stimulus also generates responses that are respondent and vary in topography, or are operants that are under discriminative or conditionally discriminative control. When one of these functions is acquired by a meaningless stimulus and it is then included as a member of a to-be-formed equivalence class, its inclusion also enhances likelihood of class formation, sometimes to the same degree as the inclusion of a meaningful stimulus. Thus, class enhancement typically attributed to the hedonic and connotative properties of a meaningful stimulus can be accounted for by the stimulus control functions served by that stimulus instead of their hedonic and connotative properties. Finally, denotation is considered last in the relative absence of empirical findings. In total, then, this article explores meaning from traditional and behavior analytic perspectives.

Abstract

The behavior-analytic approach to language and cognition is consistent with parsimony and coherence in explanatory systems within and across fields of science. Some disagreement exists regarding the appropriate composition of the conceptual tool kit that behavior analysts apply to problems in language and cognition, but ultimately these differences in perspective are minor within the context of shared goals and assumptions. This article summarizes two lines of research guided by the analyses of derived relational responding in terms of contingencies or stimulus correlations acting directly upon its components. The two lines of research eventually produced different conclusions regarding the utility of the analysis within the boundaries of the parameters that were studied. Successful prediction and control of DRR should serve to identify strength and boundaries of utility of different levels of analysis, which could lead to theoretical progress.

Children who are deaf and hard of hearing and received cochlear implants when exposed to equivalence-based instruction (EBI) exhibit improvements in speech accuracy in picture naming. The density of tests can be a variable. The present study investigated whether interspersing picture naming and reading tests between steps of an instructional curriculum (i.e., EBI) affects speech accuracy in naming tasks in two 7-year-old girls who were deaf and hard of hearing and had cochlear implants in the process of literacy. The children (Ran and Bia) were exposed to a computer-assisted curriculum that sought to teach reading. The curriculum was divided into four units and 17 teaching steps. Picture naming and reading tests were included between teaching steps in two of the four teaching units that were counterbalanced between participants. After teaching, speech accuracy in naming increased 47 percentage points for Ran and 14 percentage points for Bia. A unit-by-unit analysis showed that vocalizations tended to be more accurate in units where probe density was greater.

As a scientist, teacher, and author, Joseph J. Pear (1938–2022) made inventive and innovative contributions to the experimental analysis of behavior and applied behavior analysis. He collaborated on the invention of a computer-controlled video system that provided real-time tracking of an animal as it moved around its environment—the first system of its kind—and used this system to study the behavior of pigeons during schedules of reinforcement and autoshaping, Siamese fighting fish during Sidman avoidance tasks, and even lake sturgeon using darkness as a positive reinforcer. A pioneer in early online teaching, he developed a computer-aided version of Keller’s personalized system of instruction, a system known as CAPSI. Pear coauthored with Garry Martin a best-selling behavior modification textbook, and wrote his own books on topics such as the science of learning and psychological systems. Pear’s work exemplified the growing integration between basic and applied behavior analysis.

Objectives: The present study aimed at assessing psychological flexibility, the core construct of the acceptance and commitment therapy model, in the context of chronic illness. In particular, the present study aimed at validating the 18-item Portuguese CompACT measure of psychological flexibility in a chronic illness sample (total n = 419; 83.8% women; 16.2% men) collected via online survey. Method: In particular, we studied the internal structure of the scale employing exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), gender-based invariance, and associations with conceptually relevant constructs (shame, anxiety, depressive symptoms, insomnia severity, and self-compassion). Results: All items from the Openness to Experience subscale were removed due to low loading values on the EFA. The CFA confirmed the adequacy of an 8-item Portuguese CompACT with two subscales, Behavioral Awareness (α = .87) and Valued Action (α = .86). Both subscales correlated negatively with shame, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and insomnia severity. The Valued Action subscale additionally correlated positively with self-compassion. Conclusion: An 8-item version of the Portuguese CompACT, with two subscales, seems to be well-suited for application for clinicians with clients with chronic illness.