Showing papers in "Psychological Record in 1980"

On Behaviorism and Private Events

Abstract: Radical behaviorism may be distinguished from other varieties of behaviorism, notably methodological behaviorism, by the way that it accommodates private events, where a private event is understood as (a) a verbal report of an internal sensation or (b) the influence of such phenomena as thinking, consciousness, and the like. Verbal reports of internal sensations are established by the verbal community, which solves the problem of privacy inherent in such cases by administering differential reinforcement based on public features associated with the private stimuli. Such phenomena as thinking may be understood as private or covert behavior, not essentially different from public behavior although executed at a reduced level. The behavioristic position on private events does not constitute a new solution to the mind-body problem, nor does it equate private events with observation of physiological brain states, nor is it another form of conventional operationism, largely because of the mentalistic if not outright dualistic features of the other views.

Ethical Reservations About Psychological Research with Animals

Abstract: Ethical issues relating to painful experimentation on animals have received little attention in the literature. It is contended that this is because of the widespread acceptance of nonscientific distinctions between human beings and animals, and a consequent failure to consider the proposition that sentient creatures have interests deserving of consideration. The role of institutional factors, particularly language, in creating and maintaining the traditional notion of animals is discussed. An alternative ethical approach which would not permit painful experimentation on animals is proposed and its implications briefly examined.

On the use of Animals in Psychological Research

Abstract: This paper briefly examines some of the inconsistencies and distortions associated with Bowd’s (1980) opposition to psychological research on animals. By examining the vast amount of neglected animal suffering which occurs as a consequence of human existence, coupled with the potential benefits of animal research, we argue that the efforts of many animal rights advocates are misconstrued and misdirected. Moreover, the evolution of moral and ethical behavior in man may be such that it is not applicable to other species. While we do not condone needless suffering in animals and would welcome the suggestion of viable alternatives, we argue that there is far more of a moral imperative to continue to do animal research than to abandon it.

Observing Behavior and Information

Abstract: Pigeons were allowed to peck either of two side keys to produce (observe) a positive or a negative stimulus on a third, middle key. When pecks to one side key resulted in only the positive stimulus signaling fixed-interval 30 sec, and pecks to the other side key likewise resulted only in the negative stimulus signaling extinction 30 sec, the pigeons pecked the positive stimulus key almost exclusively. Two of three pigeons stopped observing when the positive stimulus never occurred. In a second experiment manipulation of the probability of fixed-interval components had a slight effect on observing responses but a larger effect on fixed-interval rate. These results support the inadequacy of an information account of observing behavior.

A Technique for the Study of Intraspecific Aggression in the Golden Hamster Under Conditions of Reduced Target Variability

Abstract: A target preparation has been developed for use in the study of intraspecific aggression in the golden hamster. Target animals selected for nonaggressiveness are treated with the nonnarcotic analgesic methotrimeprazine and fitted with a muzzle and harness. When subsequently attacked by aggressive animals, the targets’ locomotion and drug-elevated pain thresholds do not show systematic shifts if attack sessions are no longer than 45 min. Such targets also do not emit ultrasound during sessions. The use of such relatively invariant targets facilitates the study of changes in aggressive subjects over time and/or as function of experimental manipulation.

Research Relating to Management of Antisocial Behavior in Mentally Retarded Persons

Abstract: Antisocial behaviors take place in a primarily social context and are usually aversive to others. These heterogeneous behavior problems probably represent some of the most important impediments to deinstitutionalization and adaptation to community living for retarded persons. Surprisingly little is actually known about their prevalence and natural history. Both physiological and environmental theories have been advanced to account for antisocial behavior, but the interaction of medically oriented approaches with behavioral management approaches has not yet been studied adequately. Analysis of antecedent events like crowding, social grouping, scheduling, and availability of materials and staff is beginning to occur and may be expected to contribute to formulation of a set of principles for design of therapeutic environments. Punishment procedures, timeout, response cost, and overcorrection have been shown to be effective in suppressing antisocial behaviors, but analysis of side effects and their effects on collateral behaviors are scarce. Building repertoires of prosocial alternative behaviors and social skill training may be fruitful areas for future applied research.

Fixed-Interval Performance in Humans: Sensitivity To Temporal Parameters When Food is The Reinforcer

Abstract: Human sensitivity to temporal parameters of fixed-interval and fixed-time schedules was examined using traditional operant procedures employing food reinforcers. Subjects exhibited one of three forms of behavior: (a) high, constant rates of responding which followed short postreinforcement pauses and were insensitive to variation in the parameters of both types of schedules; (b) low rates of responding generated by few responses and a lengthy postreinforcement pause; and (c) gradually accelerating rates of responding following a moderate postreinforcement pause, i.e., a “scalloped” pattern of responding. Responding of the final variety was found to be highly sensitive to the differences in schedule type. The adaptive characteristics of each type of responding and suggestions for the reliable production of fixed-interval performance resembling that of animal subjects are also discussed.

Willpower, Behavior Therapy, and the Public

Abstract: The present research assesses the degree to which laypersons adhere to the culturally transmitted assumption that the internal force of willpower is necessary to overcome 24 different behavioral problems. Respondents (n = 465) rated their agreement with the assertion that willpower is necessary on a 7-point scale. Willpower was rated as differentially necessary for overcoming various problem behaviors. A principal components factor analysis and subsequent rotation on the 24 problem behaviors indicated four factors of problem behavior for which willpower was viewed as being differentially necessary to overcome. Willpower was rated as more necessary for overcoming “self-indulgence” problems (e.g., alcoholism, smoking) and certain “non-self-indulgent” problems (e.g., shyness, fear of flying) than for overcoming “psychopathological” problems (e.g., nervous breakdown, hallucinations) and “ability deficits” (e.g., inability to swim, poor mathematical ability). Rated agreement of the necessity of willpower was unrelated to years of education, number of psychology classes completed, whether or not the respondent ever attended a college, and particular college attended. These findings support a potential source of conflict between the behavior therapist and the client with respect to the determinants of behavior. It is suggested that this conflict be investigated further so that its impact on therapeutic progress can be assessed.

Cerebral Damage Associated With Alcoholism: A Reexamination

Abstract: The literature on neurophysical and neuropsychological studies of brain functioning in alcoholics is integrated and critically reviewed and analyzed with respect to three hypotheses of brain damage in alcoholics: (a) diffuse or generalized brain damage, (b) damage that is lateralized to the right hemisphere, and (c) damage to the frontal-limbic-diencephalic system. The authors conclude that while currently available evidence clearly demonstrates brain damage in alcoholics, it is not adequate unequivocally to support or refute any specific hypothesis of brain damage due to alcoholism. They emphasize the need for further research for both theoretical and practical purposes.

The Rescorla-Wagner Theory of Conditioning: A Review of the Literature

Abstract: A comprehensive literature review of the published articles which have tested, evaluated, or modified the conditioning theory specified by Rescorla and Wagner (1972) is presented. Following a description and presentation of the formal properties of the model, five basic classes of studies are reviewed. The classes are comprised of reviews of studies which have (a) tested the model’s basic assumptions, (b) manipulated the salience of conditioned stimuli, (c) manipulated the potency of unconditioned stimuli, (d) investigated background stimuli or commom»elements between stimuli, and (e) introduced refinements or modifications of the original model. Finally, a brief discussion of the theory’s impact and future is presented.

Centrality and Generativity Within a Linguistic Family: Toward a Conceptual Base Theory of Groups

Abstract: Centrality, generativity, and their relationship within a linguistic family were examined. Each family consisted of a proverb, an interpretation of the proverb, and two single-sentence scenarios which illustrated the proverb. Centrality was assessed in the first experiment through judgments of semantic similarity between family members and answers to questions regarding the representativeness, centrality, and redintegrative value of family members. The results indicated that the interpretations were the most central family members. A prompted recall task was used in the second experiment to assess the generative “power” of each family member. Subjects studied the families and then were given one of the family members, specified in acquisition, as a recall cue for the remaining members. Recall performance was best when the interpretations served as prompts. Assessment of the relationships between the experiments indicated that centrality and generativity were related directly. In general, the results were modeled best by treating the sentences as integral members of a dynamic, conceptually based system or group rather than as items varying in semantic distance as a function of feature overlap.

Theoretical Psychology: Where is it Headed?

Abstract: The rapid growth of American psychology following World War II has contributed to the conceptual confusion currently characteristic of the field. While psychology is too diverse to be a completely unified science, a degree of unity could be attained through the adoption of a single metasystem. Metasystemic differences are exhibited through brief analyses of behaviorism, cognitive psychology, psychobiology, and ecological psychology.

A Search for Preexposure Effects in Autoshaping: Effects of US-Only or Random CS-US Presentations, Intertrial Interval Duration, and Number of Pretraining Trials

Abstract: Sixteen groups of pigeons were exposed to either random conditioned and unconditioned stimulus (CS-US) presentations or US-only presentations for either 5 or 15 sessions. Additionally, each group was exposed to one of four intertrial intervals. Subsequently, all pigeons were presented with an autoshaping procedure in which an 8-sec key illumination preceded presentation of response-independent grain. During autoshaping, each pigeon was exposed to an intertrial interval equal in duration to the intertrial interval employed during pretraining. Neither the rate of acquisition nor maintained response measures were affected systematically by the number of preexposure trials. Only at the shortest intertrial interval was acquisition more retarded after exposure to random CS-US presentations than after US-only presentations. Both acquisition speed and maintained levels of responding were strongly facilitated by increases in intertrial intervals. Results were interpreted as consistent with a context blocking explanation of preexposure effects and the time course of these effects was also discussed.

Effects of Training Level and Locus of N-R Transitions on Resistance to Discrimination

Abstract: Four groups of 10 rats were trained on a successive brightness differential conditioning problem. Two groups received transitions from nonrewarded (N) trials to rewarded (R) trials (N-R transitions) within S+ and two groups received transitions from N in S− to R in S+ (S−S+ transitions). Half of the rats in each condition experienced those transitions from the outset of training; the remaining rats first learned the discrimination under conditions that precluded N-R or S−S+ transitions and subsequently those transitions were introduced. N-R transitions in S+ and S−S+ transitions experienced from the outset of training, and N-R transitions in S+ introduced after the discrimination had been learned, all had a like effect on discrimination and retarded discrimination compared with the late introduction of S−S+ transitions into the situation.

Exploratory Behavior in Infants and Animals: A Behavior Analysis

Abstract: Exploratory behavior in infants and animals generally has been viewed in recent years in terms of Berlyne’s learning theory which postulates collative properties for antecedent stimuli and specific hypothetical drive variables. This formulation presents problems mainly because of term ambiguities. An alternative approach treats exploratory behavior as a class of operant behavior that is strengthened by consequent physical stimuli under specifiable setting conditions. The physical stimuli involved are generated by the interaction of an individual with the physical world.

Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible Behavior (DRI) in Treating Classroom Management Problems of Developmentally Disabled Children

Abstract: Two studies are presented which examine the use of differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior (DRI) procedures in treating classroom management problems of developmentally disabled children. Each study utilizes reinforcement delivered on adjusting schedules. In Study 1 hallucinatory verbalizing was eliminated by reinforcing a child for remaining quiet during specified intervals. In Study 2 a child’s out-of-seat behavior was suppressed by reinforcing appropriate sitting. In each case the effects of DRI were immediate and produced stable suppression but these positive results were restricted to settings in which treatment was applied. Procedures used to maintain the effects of intervention are discussed.

Sex-Role Orientation of Perceivers and Targets As Variables in the Person Perception Process

Abstract: Sex-role orientation operates both as a perceiver variable and a target variable in person perception and attribution processes. The present study investigates the effects of sex-role orientation on these processes in young men making judgments about women peers. Data are presented which show that the sex-role orientation of perceivers is moderately important in determining attributions of perceived similarity to a phantom other and to attributions of adjustment and self-confidence but has no effect upon actual or attributed interpersonal attraction. Sex-role orientation of targets effects interpersonal perception and attraction processes in young men in proportion to the degree that target persons are seen as possessing masculine attributes. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the theory of psychological androgyny.

Psychology at Indiana University: From Bryan to Skinner

Abstract: Indiana University is the location of the oldest continuing psychology laboratory in America. William Lowe Bryan, a future president of the American Psychological Association, opened the laboratory in January of 1888 and subsequently performed his classic experiments on Morse Code learning there in the 1890s. This article describes the individuals and themes that guided the development of psychology at Indiana in its first 60 years, ending with the chairmanship and activities of B. F. Skinner in 1945–48. The most significant contributions of the members of the department are reviewed and assessed.

Classical Conditioning with Compound Unconditioned Stimuli

Abstract: The acquisition of overt response patterns was recorded during classical conditioning using compound unconditioned stimuli with mice. A 10-sec light was terminated by two sucrose unconditioned stimuli, with the location and movement of the subject automatically recorded during control and stimulus intervals. Conditioning elicited a variety of response sequences, including orienting responses to the light and approach responses to each sucrose dipper, with a concomitant inhibition of antagonistic responses. Classical conditioning with compound unconditioned stimuli, as previous conditioning with compound conditioned stimuli, resulted in an “overshadowing” effect, with a predominance of responses conditioned to one or the other unconditioned stimulus. These results suggest a complex organization of behavior consistent with previous analyses of concurrent and sequential response patterns in experimental schedules.

A Functional Analysis of Adult Affection and Children’s Interpersonal Distance

Abstract: Four preschool children’s preferences for adult proximity were examined as a function of adult affection in a multiple baseline design. After assessing the children’s proximity preference for each of two adults, the effects of positive affection displayed by the distantly preferred adult towards the children were examined; the closer preferred adult maintained a nonin-teractive role. Changes from baseline to intervention indicated that when affection was related reciprocally and functionally to child behavior and social preference, the children preferred closer proximity to the adult displaying that affection. Discussion focuses on the contributions of the present study, suggestions for future research, and implications for examining interpersonal distance in applied settings.

Shock-Duration Reduction as Negative Reinforcement

Abstract: In two experiments, rats were shocked every 30 sec. Before a response, a bar press, shocks were long (2 sec); for 3 min after a response, shocks were short (0.1, 0.5, or 1 sec). When responding reduced shocks from 2 to 0.1 sec, bar pressing was acquired, and the shorter the shocks the more time spent with the short-shock condition in effect. In another procedure, the duration of individual shocks following a response was controlled so that the first shock was as long as those before the response (2 sec), but the remaining shocks in the 3-min period were short (0.1 sec). Bar pressing was maintained in some rats and acquired in others showing that, even when delayed, a reduction in shock duration is reinforcing. The latter findings question the generality of a two-factor, safety-signal interpretation of negative reinforcement. These results plus others imply that to predict responding in aversive situations it is necessary to integrate, for at least several minutes, the parameters of aversive events that follow a response.

Basic Research in A Natural Setting: Auditing or Social Comparison behavior As a Function of Class Rank

Abstract: Previous findings on social comparison behavior established in a laboratory setting were extended to a natural setting. The research strategy to accomplish this represents an intermediate point on the dimension from basic laboratory research to basic research in the natural setting. The research depended on the natural environment for the independent variable (grades in a college class) but had the advantage of a controlled experimental chamber, arbitrary responses, and an automated apparatus for the dependent measure. Cumulative points earned on assignments by college students were entered in an apparatus that students used one-at-a-time to check their scores in a room adjoining the classroom. Cumulative points were changed weekly over a 7-week course. Automatically recorded button-press responses by the students (audit responses) allowed access to self-, other person, and standard scores (i.e., scores indicating A, B, and C grade levels). Self-scores were audited most consistently and standard scores were checked more than any other person’s score. Persons in middle positions with respect to point totals emitted more self-, coactor, and standard audits than persons in the high or low ranks. The middle position provided the most information about availability of the major reinforcer, being ahead, because in the middle position a student’s cumulative score had a greater chance of fluctuating over all three positions.

The Differential Effectiveness of Social Reinforcement with Children in Laboratory and Natural Settings: A Conditioned Reinforcement Analysis

Abstract: The effectiveness of social consequences as positive reinforcers for children in natural settings and their weaknesses as such in laboratory settings are described, and an argument based on the methodology of conditioned reinforcement research is developed to account for this discrepancy. Parallels are drawn between (a) the different methods for establishing (training) and assessing (testing) conditioned reinforcers and (b) the different contexts in which social reinforcers are established and delivered. First, neither conditioned nor social reinforcers are very effective when delivered in isolation (extinction) from the conditions in which they presumably acquire their function—the training conditions of conditioned reinforcers or the natural environment of social reinforcers. Second, the more complex scheduling methods used in recent conditioned reinforcement research are analogous to the complex conditions under which social reinforcers are delivered in the natural environment; in these cases, the stimuli are substantially more effective as reinforcers. By taking into account the context in which social reinforcers are delivered, a basis is provided for explaining their differential effectiveness.

Altering Sharing Behaviors Through Stimulus Control

Abstract: The present study employed an ABA design to investigate relationships between play materials and sharing behaviors in four groups of elementary school-age children. During the first baseline condition, the children were provided with a restricted number of play materials in order to facilitate sharing among the youngsters. During the second phase, when each child was supplied with all play materials, sharing behaviors were eliminated in all groups. With return to baseline condition (i.e., limited access to sharing materials), sharing interactions were documented again in the groups of children. Data from this investigation clearly indicate that inanimate stimulus properties of settings (i.e., play materials) have the potential to enhance or impede sharing behaviors in youngsters.

Intermittent Escape Schedules and Their Effects on Avoidance

Abstract: This experiment was conducted to demonstrate that contingencies present in one negative reinforcement situation may affect the behavior emitted in an alternate negative reinforcement situation. Four rats were exposed to several sessions on a free operant escape avoidance schedule in which the response-shock interval was 20 sec but the escape requirement was varied over sessions. After initial training with a continuous escape schedule which permitted the first response when shock was on to terminate shock, continuous reinforcement escape (CRF escape), two rats had to satisfy various values of a differential reinforcement of low rate escape schedule. The other two rats had to satisfy a yoked interval escape schedule, which permitted the first response after a varying interval of time to terminate shock. In general, although both escape schedules improved avoidance, the differential rein-forcement of low rate escape subjects produced lower escape rates, higher avoidance rates, and avoided more programmed shocks than the yoked interval escape rats. When the subjects were reversed, the differential reinforcement of low rate escape schedule produced an improvement in the number of shocks avoided, and lowered the escape rates of the former yoked interval escape subjects.

The Effects of Short-Term Meditation Practice on Hypnotic Responsivity

Abstract: Male students were pretested on absorption and three measures of hypnotic responsiveness, and were then randomly assigned to three treatments. One group meditated for eight sessions, while a second listened analytically to lectures about hypnosis for eight sessions. The third group was a no treatment control. Finally all students were posttested on absorption and hypnotic responsivity measures. Degree of meditating remained stable across sessions and meditating subjects were much more likely than those who listened to lectures to report intrusions into their attending. Neither the meditation nor the listening treatments enhanced hypnotic responsivity or absorption.

A Response to Herbert Terrace’s Paper, Linguistic Apes

Abstract: Terrace’s analysis of Nim chimpanzee’s data serves to caution all who bring rich interpretations to the signing behaviors of apes. We agree that apes have not yet given clear evidence of competent use of syntax. We hold that apes might yet evidence such competence, however. For them to do so, clearly they must use their signs or symbols as representations of referents and probably must be much more mature than was Nim. Research should now concentrate on the processes whereby responses (manual signs, responses to symbols on keys, and so on) can come to function referentially and communicatively as words.

A Chaining Analogue to Delayed Matching to Sample

Abstract: Pigeons were trained on an analogue to a delayed matching-to-sample procedure requiring explicit, sample-specific, mediating responses during the delay. Each trial consisted of a three-link chain. The first and third links of the chain were the sample and choice components respectively of matching to sample. During the second link, different mediating pecks, dependent on the sample, were reinforced with the presentation of the choice component on a variable-interval schedule (VI 1.5 sec to VI 70 sec). Incorrect mediating pecks resulted in a timeout (TO). Matching accuracy during the third link was over 90% even with average delays of 70 sec, while accuracy of second-link mediating pecks tended to decrease as the delay interval increased. These findings were confirmed using fixed-interval and variable-time schedules during the second link of the chain. The results suggest that mediating behavior may function as a discriminative stimulus for correct choices under delayed matching to sample.

Choice in Concurrent Schedules with a Fixed-Duration Alternative

Abstract: The experiment was based on the hypothesis that changeover behavior is maintained by the relatively immediate consequences of the changeover response. Time allocation and relative response rates were measured in a situation where the changeover response resulted in a fixed duration stay in one of two random-interval schedules. Under these conditions, time distributions tended to match relative rates of reinforcement only if the duration of this imposed stay was approximately equal to the in-terchangeover time that was emitted when the opportunity to change over was always available. Interchangeover times were insensitive to the duration of the imposed stay in a schedule. Relative response rates did not always match relative rates of reinforcement, nor did they always conform to time allocation. The results are discussed in terms of local control of responding.