Probability Relations within Response Sequences under Ratio Reinforcement.
01 Apr 1958-Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior)-Vol. 1, Iss: 2, pp 109-121
About: This article is published in Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.The article was published on 1958-04-01 and is currently open access. It has received 264 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Reinforcement.
Citations
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TL;DR: In the early assessment of toxic substances a judiciously chosen sample of schelule-controlled performances may provide the best estimate whether the integrity of complex operant behavior remains unchanged and the development of improved behavioral techniques and computer technology promises to bring down the cost of such assessment.
Abstract: Operant conditioning can contribute to the development of behavioral toxicology in many ways. Its techniques are useful in training animals in the various behaviors the toxicologist may wish to study. They make possible the sophisticated assessment of sensory functioning. Operant conditioners excel at using schedules of intermittent reinforcement to create the type of stable animal performance needed in studying substances that produce effects only after prolonged exposure. Schedule-controlled behavior also helps elucidate the precise behavioral mechanisms involved in toxicity. In the early assessment of toxic substances a judiciously chosen sample of schelule-controlled performances may provide the best estimate whether the integrity of complex operant behavior remains unchanged. The development of improved behavioral techniques and computer technology promises to bring down the cost of such assessment.
19Â citations
TL;DR: Variable interval responding was hypothesized to be a function of differential reinforcement susceptibilities of various unspecified behavior chains that mediate interresponse times (IRTs), and probabilities of reinforcement were regulated for the lengths of chains of key pecking responses of pigeons, analogous to the way that VI regulates probability of reinforcement for IRTs.
Abstract: Variable interval (VI) responding was hypothesized to be a function of differential reinforcement susceptibilities of various unspecified behavior chains that mediate interresponse times (IRTs). To test this hypothesis, probabilities of reinforcement were regulated for the lengths of chains of key pecking responses of pigeons, analogous to the way that VI regulates probabilities of reinforcement for IRTs. This procedure generated a number of VI-like effects, supporting the notion that VI behavior can be construed as a special case of an interaction between the organism's function relating reinforcement susceptibilities to chain length and the experimenter's function relating probabilities of reinforcement to chain length.
18Â citations
TL;DR: Behavior controlled by external discriminative stimuli was more resistant to disruption and showed tolerance more readily than did behavior not under such control; some rats displayed tolerance while the performance of others deteriorated.
Abstract: Toluene shares pharmacological properties with other abused central nervous system depressants such as ethanol and the barbiturates. Although tolerance has been clearly demonstrated for these classic CNS depressants, evidence of tolerance following repeated toluene exposure is equivocal. The present work examined if tolerance would develop to the effects of repeated toluene exposure on learned behavior and examined the possibility that external discriminative stimuli could influence these effects. Two variants of a fixed-consecutive-number schedule of reinforcement were used as components in a multiple schedule. The components differed in whether or not behavior within them was under the control of external discriminative stimuli. Rats were exposed daily for two hours to toluene (1780 to 4500 ppm). Different patterns of effects emerged from repeated exposure; some rats displayed tolerance while the performance of others deteriorated. Behavior controlled by external discriminative stimuli was more resistant to disruption and showed tolerance more readily than did behavior not under such control.
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References
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TL;DR: I am indebted to Professor Lighthill for some further illuminating remarks regarding this point and his comments on Heisenberg's Theory of Isotropic Turbulence are highly illuminating.
Abstract: 1 G. K. Batchelor, The Theory of Homogeneous Turbulence (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1954). 2 G. K. Batchelor and A. A. Townsend, \"Decay of Turbulence in the Final Period of Decay,\" Proc. Roy. Soc. London, A, 194, 527-543, 1948. 3 W. Heisenberg, \"Zur statistischen Theorie der Turbulenz,\" Z. Physik, 124, 628-657, 1948. 4W. H. Reid, \"Two Remarks on Heisenberg's Theory of Isotropic Turbulence,\" Quart. Appl. Math. 14, 201-205, 1956. 6 Cf. M. J. Lighthill, Nature, 173, 746, 1954. I am indebted to Professor Lighthill for some further illuminating remarks regarding this point.
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