The operant conditioning of human motor behavior.

"This paper reports procedures for the direct application of the variables defining the paradigm for operant conditioning to human behavior, and shows that human beings act very much indeed like experimental animals when they are subjected to the same experimental treatments. It suggests that direct application of conditioning principles to some categories of human behavior may be justified. The procedures are simple, and they may be followed by anyone, with a minimum of equipment." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypotheses and habits in verbal "operant conditioning.'

The traditional explanation of experiments related to conditioning of verbal behavior in terms of operant conditioning, i.e., learning without awareness, was questioned. It was hypothesized that such conditioning to cues given by E might be based on S's awareness of the cue and assumed meaning of such a stimulus. 2 experiments were performed, 1 where plural nouns were reinforced, and a 2nd to test the generalization of this acquired pattern on a word association test. The usual findings re: conditioning of plural nouns was replicated and there seemed to be a carry-over of the set to the word association test. However, some Ss seemed to be aware of the meaning of such a reinforcer as "um-hm." Moreover, response set was also seen to affect conditionability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The retention and generalization of operant conditioning effects in an interview situation.

In a study of the conditioning of complex verbal habits, each of 30 female Ss had her established verbal habits assessed in 2 sessions by being asked to talk about herself. In subsequent sessions, the Ss in the experimental groups were positively reinforced (by a head nod and an "mm-hm") for either independence or affection statements, whereas control groups Ss were reinforced every 30 sec. regardless of the content of their speech. The results showed that: conditioning occurred, i.e., the experimental Ss increased in their use of the reinforced category; retention also occurred, i.e., the conditioning effects were stable over a 24-hr. period; and generalization did not occur. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Instructions as discriminative stimuli in verbal conditioning and awareness.

This investigation was to study the effects of preconditioning instructions and type of reinforcer on level of awareness and extent of conditioning. Prior to a conditioning task, Ss in different experimental groups were given varying degrees of information concerning the nature of the reinforcement and the reinforcement contingency. In some groups of Ss the reinforcement consisted of E saying "good" while in other experimental groups the Ss received points as reinforcement. The results indicated that the degree of conditioning and level of awareness were partially dependent upon the amount of information in the preconditioning instruction. However, in experimental groups where only partial information was given, Ss who received points conditioned better than Ss who received "good" even though there were no differences in the level of awareness. The nature of the response class was also found to be an important variable that affected the level of conditioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of the schedule of reinforcement on operant conditioning of a verbal response in the autokinetic situation.

The autokinetic effect was employed to compare the effect of 2 different schedules of reinforcement on verbal behavior. One group of Ss was given 20 reinforcements of "Right" under a regular reinforcement schedule for emitting verbally the estimate designated as the response. A second group was given similar reinforcement under a variable interval schedule. The regular reinforcement group reached the criterion of extinction in 10 to 35 verbal emissions while no S in the variable interval group extinguished within 10 to 80 verbal emissions. 15 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Operant conditioning in a quasi-therapy setting.

In 6 recorded interviews with student volunteers, S was asked to talk about himself. E differentially reinforced ("mm-hm" with a nod) positive or negative self-references, or reinforced not at all. Conditioning occurred re reinforcement of negative statement, not under conditions of reinforcement of positive references or nonreinforcement. No relationship was found between initial level of anxiety or emotional adjustment and conditionability. General, but not statistically significant, trends towards reduction of anxiety or improvement in adjustment were noted. Most Ss were unaware of therapist's manipulation of his verbalizations. Conclusion: a patient's verbalizations can be influenced by therapist's communication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of operant level, interview with experimenter, and awareness upon verbal conditioning of chronic schizophrenics.

The present research attempted to (a) cross-validate N. D. Vestre's (1961, 1965) findings that medium-operant-level pronouns can be conditioned by "good" in a chronic schizophrenic population, (b) test whether or not high-operant-level pronouns can be conditioned by "good" in a chronic schizophrenic population, and (c) compare the conditionability of high-operant-level with that of medium-operant-level pronouns. It was hypothesized that schizophrenics would be more conditionable following a brief, friendly, personal interview than in the absence of any preconditioning interview. It was expected that awareness of the response-reinforcement contingency would favor conditioning. Both the operant level and interview with experimenter variables were investigated to see whether or not either differentially affected (a) the number of aware Ss and (b) the performance of aware Ss. "Good" functioned as a reinforcer for about 1/4 of the Ss in this study. The most important factor contributing to performance was awareness of the response-reinforcement contingency. Also, reinforcement tended to be more effective when Ss had no (instead of a S-min) preexperimental interview with E. Medium-operant-level pronouns were conditionable, and results of conditionability comparisons between high- and medium-preference pronouns depended upon how performance was measured. The negligible conditionability of high-preference pronouns was discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nicotine-like discriminative stimulus effects of bupropion in rats.

Bupropion, a tobacco-cessation product, shares discriminative stimulus effects with cocaine and methamphetamine. The discriminative stimulus effects of these drugs, in turn, overlap with those of nicotine. This study investigated the overlap in discriminative stimulus effects of bupropion and nicotine. Rats were trained to discriminate 0.4 mg/kg (-)-nicotine from saline in 2-lever drug discrimination. Both nicotine and bupropion substituted for nicotine: however nicotine's effects were blocked by the nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine, whereas those of bupropion were not. These results suggest that bupropion may be producing its nicotine-like discriminative stimulus effect though a different mechanism that nicotine. Give bupropion's shared pharmacology with dopamine transport inhibitors, these effects may be produced in part through bupropion's actions on dopaminergic neurotransmission. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Operant conditioning of verbal behavior of dysthymics and hysterics.

Previous findings (Eysenck, 1955; Franks, 1956) indicated that neurotics of the dysthymic type react differentially to conditioning procedures than hysterics, and that conditionability is related to extraversion-introversion. The present study investigates the validity of these findings using verbal conditioning techniques. The results did not confirm the hypothesis; the Ss were not distinguished by ease of conditionability, measures of extraversion and anxiety, but were by Edwards (1957) Social Desirability scale. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HI88G. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The reinforcement of cooperation between children.

20 children, 7 to 12 years of age, were formed into 10 cooperative teams of 2 children, matched as to age and sex. The 2 children were required to manipulate an apparatus designed so that the partners were required to make similar responses at the same time to receive a jelly bean as reinforcement. The results indicate that operant conditioning techniques can be used to develop, maintain and eliminate cooperation between children without the use of specific instructions concerning cooperation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overshadowing and stimulus duration.

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated the effect of stimulus duration on overshadowing. Experiments 1 and 2 examined responding to a target conditioned stimulus (CS1) when it was conditioned in compound with a coterminating overshadowing stimulus (CS2) that was longer, shorter, or of the same duration (the long, short, and matched groups, respectively). Equal overshadowing of conditioning to CS1 was obtained in all 3 conditions relative to a control group conditioned to the light alone. There were, however, differences in responding to CS2 as a function of its absolute duration. Experiment 3 examined the contribution of the food-food interval/CS onset-food interval ratio to these findings. In Experiments 1 and 2, the ratio differed for the overshadowing CS but not for the target CS. In Experiment 3, this arrangement was reversed, but the pattern of results remained the same. The implications of these findings for trial-based and real-time models of conditioning are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using visual reinforcement to establish stimulus control of responding of Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens).

Stimulus control of ring swimming was studied with male Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) using 2-component multiple schedules in which the components were correlated with the presence or absence of air bubbles in the water. In Experiment 1, either response-independent mirror presentations or extinction was juxtaposed with immediate response-dependent mirror presentations. Rates of ring swimming generally were higher with immediate reinforcement than with either response-independent mirror presentations or extinction. In Experiment 2, different durations of response-dependent mirror presentations were juxtaposed. Generally, higher rates of ring swimming occurred with 15-s than with 0-, 1-, or 3-s durations. Results demonstrate that stimulus control of responding can be established with these fish under several conditions of differential reinforcement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer of the effects of verbal conditioning.

Experimental Ss were verbally conditioned to use more future tense responses in making up sentences. Transfer effects were assessed using a 2nd sentence completion task containing certain stimulus cues present on the original task. Transfer of learning was demonstrated on the basis of a grossly defined, 2-step gradient of similarity of stimulus cues contained on the learning and transfer tasks. The variables of S's awareness and S's sex did not lead to statistically significant between-group differences. The response form (written vs. oral) also failed to demonstrate a significant effect. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of continuous versus intermittent CS-UCS pairing on human brain activation during Pavlovian fear conditioning.

During Pavlovian fear conditioning a conditioned stimulus (CS) is repeatedly paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (UCS). In many studies the CS and UCS are paired on every trial, whereas in others the CS and UCS are paired intermittently. To better understand the influence of the CS-UCS pairing rate on brain activity, the experimenters presented continuously, intermittently, and non-paired CSs during fear conditioning. Amygdala, anterior cingulate, and fusiform gyrus activity increased linearly with the CS-UCS pairing rate. In contrast, insula and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex responses were larger during intermittently paired CS presentations relative to continuously and non-paired CSs. These results demonstrate two distinct patterns of activity in disparate brain regions. Amygdala, anterior cingulate, and fusiform gyrus activity paralleled the CS-UCS pairing rate, whereas the insula and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex appeared to respond to the uncertainty inherent in intermittent CS-UCS pairing procedures. These findings may further clarify the role of these brain regions in Pavlovian fear conditioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experience-dependent effects of cocaine self-administration/conditioning on prefrontal and accumbens dopamine responses.

Experiments were performed to examine the effects of cocaine self-administration and conditioning experience on operant behavior, locomotor activity, and nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) dopamine (DA) responses. Sensory cues were paired with alternating cocaine and nonreinforcement during 12 (limited training) or 40 (long-term training) daily operant sessions. After limited training, NAcc DA responses to cocaine were significantly enhanced in the presence of cocaine-associated cues compared with nonreward cues and significantly depressed after cocaine-paired cues accompanied a nonreinforced lever response. PFC DA levels were generally nonresponsive to cues after the same training duration. However, after long-term training, cocaine-associated cues increased the magnitude of cocaine-stimulated PFC DA levels significantly over levels observed with nonreinforcement cues. Conversely, conditioned cues no longer influenced NAcc DA levels after long-term training. In addition, cocaine-stimulated locomotor activity was enhanced by cocaine-paired cues after long-term, but not after limited, training. Findings demonstrate that cue-induced cocaine expectation exerts a significant impact on dopaminergic and behavioral systems, progressing from mesolimbic to mesocortical regions and from latent to patent behaviors as cocaine and associative experiences escalate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of unconditioned stimulus magnitude on the emergence of conditioned responding.

Although unconditioned stimulus (US) magnitude influences conditioning, no experiment has addressed whether it influences a decision point at which the organism first responds (Gallistel & Gibbon, 2000). Two appetitive conditioning experiments with rats confirmed that the rate of food cup entries and proportion of head jerking were related to the number of pellets (US) provided after the conditioned stimulus. In addition, the onset of responding measured by the number of reinforcers to a criterion or by a quantitatively identified change point also reflected US magnitude. Two aversive conditioning experiments also found that the amount and onset of freezing were related to footshock intensity. All experiments identified a trial at which responding increased abruptly in individual subjects. However, the point where the increase occurred was earlier with larger USs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes established by classical conditioning.

"2 experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that attitude responses elicited by a word can be conditioned to a contiguously presented socially significant verbal stimulus… . In Experiment I, one national name was paired with positive evaluative meaning and another was paired with negative evaluative meaning. In Experiment II, familiar masculine names were used. In each experiment there was significant evidence that meaning responses had been conditioned to the names without Ss' awareness." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluative conditioning may incur attentional costs.

Evaluative conditioning (EC) refers to changes in the liking of an affectively neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus, or CS) after pairing this stimulus with an affect-laden stimulus (unconditioned stimulus, or US). Several authors proposed that EC incurs little or no attentional cost. Using a rigorous design, we provide evidence that a reduction in attentional resources may have a negative impact on EC. Additional analyses also revealed that participants correctly encoded fewer CS–US pairings when their attentional resources were depleted. Replicating Pleyers, Corneille, Luminet, and Yzerbyt’s (2007) findings, EC was also obtained only for CSs that could be correctly linked to their associated US in the context of an identification task. This research clarifies the role of higher order processes in EC and has significant practical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Timing during inhibitory conditioning.

Analyses of second-by-second conditioned responding into a food receptacle by hungry rats (Rattus norvegicus) found that inhibition varies across the duration of a conditioned stimulus (CS) in a manner consistent with initial training. Variations in the arrival time of the unconditioned stimulus (US) supported temporally specific suppression of responding (Experiment 1). Summation and retardation tests (Experiments 2 and 3, respectively) revealed that points of greatest inhibition coincided with US omission at the time normally specified by the excitor. Our data provide a clear demonstration of fine-grained changes in the time course of inhibitory conditioning for the first time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contextual stimulus control over operant responding in pigeons.

Gave pigeons (N = 48) 17 days of single stimulus (S) training with a house light and tone context. Ss were then given 20 days of discrimination training with a 555-nm green response key (S+) and a line (S-). For Group 1 the light and tone were paired with S+ (S+/context), for Group 2 they were paired with S- (S-/context), and for Group 3 they were paired with both (no context change, or NCC). For each group a matched control group experienced the same stimulus configurations without the prior single stimulus training. Then all groups were tested for wavelength generalization. Of the 3 experimental groups, the S+/context group acquired the discrimination the fastest, the S-/context group started poorly but eventually mastered the discrimination, and the NCC group never mastered it. The experimental groups yielded flatter wavelength gradients than did their matched controls, which suggests blocking by the contextual stimuli. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)