Showing papers on "Reinforcement published in 2004"

Measuring the emergence of tobacco dependence: the contribution of negative reinforcement models

Abstract: This review of negative reinforcement models of drug dependence is part of a series that takes the position that a complete understanding of current concepts of dependence will facilitate the development of reliable and valid measures of the emergence of tobacco dependence. Other reviews within the series consider models that emphasize positive reinforcement and social learning/cognitive models. This review summarizes negative reinforcement in general and then presents four current negative reinforcement models that emphasize withdrawal, classical conditioning, self-medication and opponent-processes. For each model, the paper outlines central aspects of dependence, conceptualization of dependence development and influences that the model might have on current and future measures of dependence. Understanding how drug dependence develops will be an important part of future successful tobacco dependence measurement, prevention and treatment strategies.

Performance of different geosynthetic reinforcement materials in sand foundations

Abstract: This paper presents the results of laboratory model tests carried out to study the relative performance of different forms of reinforcement (i.e. geocell, planar and randomly distributed mesh elements) in sand beds under strip loading. The results demonstrate that geocell reinforcement is the most advantageous soil reinforcement technique of those investigated. With the provision of geocell reinforcement, failure was not observed even at a settlement equal to about 45% of the footing width and a load as high as eight times the ultimate capacity of the unreinforced soil, whereas, with planar reinforcement, failure took place at a settlement of about 15% of the footing width and a load of about four times the ultimate capacity of the unreinforced soil. For the case with randomly distributed reinforcement mesh, failure was recorded at a load of about 1.8 times the ultimate capacity of the unreinforced soil and at a settlement of about 10% of the footing width.

Extrinsic Reinforcement in the Classroom: Bribery or Best Practice

Abstract: The debate over the effects of the use of extrinsic reinforcement in classrooms, businesses, and societal settings has been occurring for over 30 years. Some theorists have cautioned against the us...

Repeated nicotine exposure enhances responding with conditioned reinforcement.

Abstract: Rationale Stimuli associated with a reinforcer (e.g., an addictive drug) can acquire conditioned reinforcing effects. Clinical observations indicate that smoking depends strongly upon conditioned reinforcement (i.e., cues support smoking behavior); however, little is known about the effects of repeated nicotine exposure on these processes.

Creating tic suppression: comparing the effects of verbal instruction to differential reinforcement.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to compare two methods designed to produce tic reduction in 4 children with Tourette's syndrome Specifically, a verbal instruction not to engage in tics was compared to a verbal instruction plus differential reinforcement of zero-rate behavior (DRO) Results showed that the DRO-enhanced procedure yielded greater reductions in tic frequency

An Evaluation of Response Cost in the Treatment of Inappropriate Vocalizations Maintained by Automatic Reinforcement.

Abstract: In the current study, we examined the utility of a procedure consisting of noncontingent reinforcement with and without response cost in the treatment of inappropriate vocalizations maintained by automatic reinforcement. Results are discussed in terms of examining the variables that contribute to the effectiveness of response cost as treatment for problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement.

A partial reinforcement extinction effect despite equal rates of reinforcement during Pavlovian conditioning.

Abstract: In 4 experiments rats received appetitive Pavlovian conditioning followed by extinction. Food accompanied every trial with the conditioned stimulus (CS) for the continuously reinforced groups and only half of the trials for the partially reinforced groups. In contrast to previous experiments that have compared the effects of partial and continuous reinforcement, the rate at which food was delivered during the CS was the same for both groups. The strength of the conditioned response during extinction weakened more rapidly in the continuously than in the partially reinforced groups. The results demonstrate that the partial reinforcement extinction effect is a consequence of the nonreinforced trials with the CS, rather than the rate at which the unconditioned stimulus is delivered during the CS.

A comparison of dense-to-lean and fixed lean schedules of alternative reinforcement and extinction.

Abstract: Behavior-reduction interventions typically employ dense schedules of alternative reinforcement in conjunction with operant extinction for problem behavior. After problem behavior is reduced in the initial treatment stages, schedule thinning is routinely conducted to make the intervention more practical in natural environments. In the current investigation, two methods for thinning alternative reinforcement schedules were compared for 3 clients who exhibited severe problem behavior. In the dense-to-lean (DTL) condition, reinforcement was delivered on relatively dense schedules (using noncontingent reinforcement for 1 participant and functional communication training for 2 participants), followed by systematic schedule thinning to progressively leaner schedules. During the fixed lean (FL) condition, reinforcement was delivered on lean schedules (equivalent to the terminal schedule of the DTL condition). The FL condition produced a quicker attainment of individual treatment goals for 2 of the 3 participants. The results are discussed in terms of the potential utility of using relatively lean schedules at treatment outset.

Enhancing the effects of extinction on attention-maintained behavior through noncontingent delivery of attention or stimuli identified via a competing stimulus assessment

Abstract: Recent research has shown that the noncontingent delivery of competing stimuli can effectively reduce rates of destructive behavior maintained by social-positive reinforcement, even when the contingency for destructive behavior remains intact. It may be useful, therefore, to have a systematic means for predicting which reinforcers do and do not compete successfully with the reinforcer that is maintaining destructive behavior. In the present study, we conducted a brief competing stimulus assessment in which noncontingent access to a variety of tangible stimuli (one toy per trial) was superimposed on a fixed-ratio 1 schedule of attention for destructive behavior for individuals whose behavior was found to be reinforced by attention during a functional analysis. Tangible stimuli that resulted in the lowest rates of destructive behavior and highest percentages of engagement during the competing stimulus assessment were subsequently used in a noncontingent tangible items plus extinction treatment package and were compared to noncontingent attention plus extinction and extinction alone. Results indicated that both treatments resulted in greater reductions in the target behavior than did extinction alone and suggested that the competing stimulus assessment may be helpful in predicting stimuli that can enhance the effects of extinction when noncontingent attention is unavailable. DESCRIPTORS: Attention-maintained problem behavior, competing stimuli, extinction, functional analysis, noncontingent reinforcement

Exploring the limits and utility of operant conditioning in the treatment of drug addiction.

Abstract: This article describes a research program to develop an operant treatment for cocaine addiction in low-income, treatment-resistant methadone patients. The treatment's central feature is an abstinence reinforcement contingency in which patients earn monetary reinforcement for providing cocaine-free urine samples. Success and failure of this contingency appear to be an orderly function of familiar parameters of operant conditioning. Increasing reinforcement magnitude and duration can increase effectiveness, and sustaining the contingency can prevent relapse. Initial development of a potentially practical application of this technology suggests that it may be possible to integrate abstinence reinforcement into employment settings using salary for work to reinforce drug abstinence. This research illustrates the potential utility and current limitations of an operant approach to the treatment of drug addiction. Similar research programs are needed to explore the limits of the operant approach and to develop practical applications that can be used widely in society for the treatment of drug addiction.

Serotonergic modulation in aplysia. I. Distributed serotonergic network persistently activated by sensitizing stimuli.

Abstract: A common feature of arousing stimuli used as reinforcement in animal models of learning is that they promote memory formation through widespread effects in the CNS. In the marine mollusk Aplysia, s...

Abolishing the effect of reinforcement delay on human causal learning.

Abstract: Associative learning theory postulates two main determinants for human causal learning: contingency and contiguity. In line with such an account, participants in Shanks, Pearson, and Dickinson (1989) failed to discover causal relations involving delays of more than two seconds. More recent research has shown that the impact of contiguity and delay is mediated by prior knowledge about the timeframe of the causal relation in question. Buehner and May (2002, 2003) demonstrated that the detrimental effect of delay can be significantly reduced if reasoners are aware of potential delays. Here we demonstrate for the first time that the negative influence of delay can be abolished completely by a subtle change in the experimental instructions. Temporal contiguity is thus not essential for human causal learning.

An Alternative Method of Thinning Reinforcer Delivery during Differential Reinforcement.

Abstract: Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) may result in rates of reinforcement that are impractical for caregivers to implement; therefore, recent research has examined methods for thinning reinforcer delivery during DRA. In this study, reinforcer delivery was thinned during DRA by restricting access to the participant's alternative response materials.

Do “bad boys” really get the girls? Delinquency as a cause and consequence of dating behavior among adolescents

Abstract: Drawing on Zahavi's (1975) handicap principle, we suggest that delinquency and other risk-taking behavior might be seen as evidence of positive, adaptive qualities such as nerve and bravery Drawing on Akers' (1998) social learning theory, we also suggest that potential romantic partners might be attracted to such traits and that this romantic attention might reinforce delinquency and other risk-taking behavior Using data from the first and third waves of the National Youth Survey, we test these assertions with a series of longitudinal OLS and contemporaneous-effects covariance structure models Results suggest that delinquency serves to increase romantic involvement and that romantic involvement may provide vicarious, but not necessarily direct, reinforcement for delinquency among both male and female adolescents

Discounting Of Delayed Reinforcers: Measurement By Questionnaires Versus Operant Choice Procedures

Abstract: The ability of a reinforcer to maintain behavior decreases as a hyperbolic function of its delay. This discounted value can help explain impulsivity defined as the choice of an immediate, small reinforcer over a delayed, large reinforcer. Human operant studies using consumable reinforcers such as videos have found impulsivity with delays under 1 min. However, measures of discounting rates using questionnaires that describe hypothetical amounts of monetary reinforcers and delays of days, months, or years have found discounting rates that are much too low to explain impulsive choice in operant procedures. A comparison of discounting rates across questionnaire and operant studies indicates that questionnaires produce slower discounting because of the absence of both reinforcement and consumption processes. Combining reinforcement with questions about future reinforcers could facilitate the integration of questionnaire research into a behavioral framework.

Behavior Management: Principles And Practices Of Positive Behavior Supports

Abstract: 1. Understanding Behavior in Children and Youth. 2. Partnering with Families. 3. Ensuring Ethical Practices in the Delivery of Positive Behavior Supports. 4. Prevention of Challenging Behavior 5. Understanding Functional Behavior Assessment. 6. Single-Subject Design 7. Planning Behavior Support. 8. Evaluating Positive Behavior Supports. 9. Using Reinforcement to Increase Appropriate Behavior. 10. Teaching Positive Alternative Behaviors. 11. Reducing Challenging Behavior. 12. Developing Self-Determination Skills.

A critical literature review of high-performance corrosion reinforcements in concrete bridge applications

Abstract: A critical literature review regarding high-performance reinforcement for concrete bridge applications was conducted. This included (1) an overview of the corrosion-induced concrete deterioration process, (2) corrosion control alternatives, (3) the utility of corrosion (pitting) resistant alloys for applications in chloride containing environments, (4) a review of the pitting mechanism, and (5) performance of various metallic reinforcement types in aqueous solutions, cementitious embedments, test yard exposures, and actual structures. Specific alloys upon which attention was directed include black steel; MMFX-II; and various grades of ferritic, austenitic, and duplex stainless steels, as both solid and clad bars and in the as-received and pickled conditions. It was determined that the high-performance alloys outperformed black steel from a corrosion resistance standpoint. Unlike the various grades of black steel, however, a relatively wide range of corrosion performance was apparent for the high-performance counterparts depending upon the alloy and surface condition. At the same time, the present approach to materials selection for bridge construction is to identify the reinforcement candidate that will achieve the design life at the least life cycle cost. This, in turn requires that long-term corrosion performance of candidate reinforcement types be known for the anticipated design life of the bridge in question, which can be 75-100 years. However, because service history for these materials in this application is limited, the necessary information can only be obtained from accelerated, short-term tests, but there is no reliable correlation between the results from these tests and long-term performance.

Drive, incentive, and reinforcement: the antecedents and consequences of motivation.

Abstract: The aim of scientific explanation is to characterize the important antecedents of observable (or at least objectively confirmable) events. Explanations of behavior in terms of motivational states are appeals to unobservable, internal events for interpretations of behavior that is variable under apparently constant external stimulus conditions (see, e.g., Brown, 1953; Hinde, 1960). To be identified as the cause of a behavior, the unobservable event or condition must preexist the behavioral event to be explained. A behavior cannot be explained by its consequences, though it may be explained as a consequence of similar events in the animal’s history. Scientific explanation involves the sequential identification of what comes first and what follows. To understand correctly what comes first and what follows is to achieve the primary goal of science. While the teleology of Aristotle’s notion of “final causes” encouraged the explanation of what comes first by what comes after, the major advance of the scientific revolution was to substitute mechanical causes—necessary and sufficient conditions (the “efficient causes” of Aristotle)—for the “final causes” previously legitimized by Aristotle’s teachings (see Aristotle, Physics, in Barnes, 1984). Galileo precip-

Acquisition with partial and continuous reinforcement in pigeon autoshaping.

Abstract: Contemporary time accumulation models make the unique prediction that acquisition of a conditioned response will be equally rapid with partial and continuous reinforcement, if the time between conditioned stimuli is held constant. To investigate this, acquisition of conditioned responding was examined in pigeon autoshaping under conditions of 100% and 25% reinforcement, holding intertrial interval constant. Contrary to what was predicted, evidence for slowed acquisition in partially reinforced animals was observed with several response measures. However, asymptotic performance was superior with 25% reinforcement. A switching of reinforcement contingencies after initial acquisition did not immediately affect responding. After further sessions, partial reinforcement augmented responding, whereas continuous reinforcement did not, irrespective of an animal’s reinforcement history. Subsequent training with a novel stimulus maintained the response patterns. These acquisition results generally support associative, rather than time accumulation, accounts of conditioning.

The effect of reinforcement on early-age cracking due to autogenous shrinkage and thermal effects

Abstract: The effect of reinforcement on early-age cracking in high strength concrete was investigated on laboratory scale. A temperature stress testing machine was used for simulating total restraint and for imposing different curing temperatures onto the concrete. The behaviour of the used high strength concrete was compared to a normal strength concrete. In order to separate thermal effects and autogenous shrinkage specimens were cured isothermally and semi-adiabatically. Further test variables were the reinforcement percentage (0%, 0.75%, 1.34% and 3.02%) and configuration (one reinforcement bar and four reinforcement bars). In order to visualise the crack formation in the early phase, cracks had been impregnated with fluorescent epoxy. The so obtained photos show that reinforcement can induce the formation of smaller cracks. These smaller cracks can postpone the moment at which major cracks are formed. Finally, a procedure is discussed for quantifying the effect of reinforcement decreasing the risk of through-cracking at early age. For that purpose a strain enhancement factor is introduced.

Noncontingent reinforcement, alternative reinforcement, and the matching law: a laboratory demonstration.

Abstract: Basic researchers, but not most applied researchers, have assumed that the behavior-decelerating effects of noncontingent reinforcement result at least partly from adventitious reinforcement of competing behaviors. The literature contains only sketchy evidence of these effects because few noncontingent reinforcement studies measure alternative behaviors. A laboratory model is presented in which concurrent schedules of contingent reinforcement were used to establish a "target" and an "alternative" behavior. Imposing noncontingent reinforcement decreased target behavior rates and increased alternative behavior rates, outcomes that were well described by the standard quantitative account of alternative reinforcement, the generalized matching law. These results suggest that adventitious reinforcement of alternative behaviors can occur during noncontingent reinforcement interventions, although the range of conditions under which this occurs remains to be determined in future studies. As an adjunct to applied studies, laboratory models permit easy measurement of alternative behaviors and parametric manipulations needed to answer many research questions.

Within-session delay-of-reinforcement gradients.

Abstract: Within-session delay-of-reinforcement gradients were generated with pigeons by progressively increasing delays to reinforcement within each session. In Experiment 1, the effects of imposing progressive delays on variable-interval and fixed-interval schedules were investigated while controlling for simultaneous decreases in reinforcer rate across the session via a within-subject yoked-control procedure. Rate of key pecking decreased as a negatively decelerated function of delay of reinforcement within a session. These rate decreases were greater than those during a yoked-interval session in which the rate of immediate reinforcement decreased at the same rate as it did under the progressive-delay procedure. In Experiment 2, delay-of-reinforcement gradients were shallower when the progressive delay intervals were signaled by a blackout than when they were unsignaled. The delay gradients obtained in each experiment were similar to those generated under conditions in which different delays of reinforcement are imposed across blocks of sessions. The present procedure offers a technique for rapidly generating delay-of-reinforcement gradients that might serve as baselines for assessing the effects of other behavioral and pharmacological variables.

Herrnstein's hyperbolic matching equation and behavioral pharmacology: review and critique.

Abstract: Behavioral pharmacologists have enlisted Herrnstein's (1970) hyperbolic matching equation to understand the behavioral effects of drugs. Herrnstein's hyperbola describes the relation between absolute response rate and reinforcement rate. The equation has two fitted parameters. The parameter k represents the asymptotic response rate, and the parameter r e represents the reinforcement rate necessary to obtain half the asymptotic response rate. According to one interpretation of the equation, changes in k should reflect changes in response or motoric variables, and changes in r e should reflect changes in reinforcer or motivational variables, or changes in reinforcement from sources extraneous to the instrumental response. We review research that has applied Herrnstein's equation to distinguish the motoric from the motivational effects of drugs, and to identify additional independent variables responsible for drug effects, such as extraneous reinforcement. The validity of inferences about drug effects depends on the consistency of how k and r e respond to environmental manipulations: k should change only with response or motoric variables, and r e should change with reinforcer or motivational variables and with the rate of extraneous reinforcement. Empirical tests of these predictions, however, have produced inconsistent results. The review suggests that Herrnstein's theory has not fulfilled its promise of identifying the behavioral mechanisms of drug action. Modifications to the equation, known as bias and sensitivity, may explain some of these inconsistent results, and the modified equation may have utility in behavioral pharmacology.

The etymology of basic concepts in the experimental analysis of behavior

Abstract: The origins of many of the basic concepts used in the experimental analysis of behavior can be traced to Pavlov's (1927/1960) discussion of unconditional and conditional reflexes in the dog, but often with substantial changes in meaning (e.g., stimulus, response, and reinforcement). Other terms were added by Skinner (1938/1991) to describe his data on the rate of lever pressing in the rat (e.g., operant conditioning, conditioned reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and response induction and differentiation) and key pecking in the pigeon (shaping). The concept of drive, however, has largely disappeared from the current literature.