|
| Contributions of Behavioral Pharmacology to the Experimental Analysis of Behavior |
| Sunday, May 30, 2004 |
| 2:30 PM–3:50 PM |
| Beacon E |
| Area: BPH/EAB; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Steven I. Dworkin (University of North Carolina at Wilmington) |
| Abstract: . |
| |
| Historical and Contextual Determinants of Behavior |
| JAMES BARRETT (Memory Pharmaceuticals) |
| Abstract: The characteristic features of ongoing and emerging behavior, including responses to episodic or recurring interventions such as noxious stimuli or the administration of a drug, are a combined function of prior history, current context, and prevailing contingencies. In many cases the influence of some of these conditions, such as the effects of prior histories, may not be readily apparent in ongoing behavior and may remain dormant until the influence of that history is revealed by some means. Studies in behavioral pharmacology have contributed substantially to the view that the past consequences of behavior, and the context in which that behavior takes place, can have a dramatic role in shaping the ways in which ongoing behavior is influenced by the administration of a drug. Such studies have not only identified and elucidated the powerful role of behavioral variables in determining drug action but have also made forcefully evident that contingencies of reinforcement leave dynamic traces that have a profound impact on the ways in which environmental events affect and subsequently modify behavior. |
| |
| Three Ways that Experiments with Drugs Can Illuminate Behavioral Processes |
| MARC N. BRANCH (University of Florida) |
| Abstract: Behavioral Pharmacology is usually conceptualized as a field that comprises the study of effects of drugs on behavior. While that is true, it is useful to recognize that when studying effects of drugs on behavior, one can learn not only about drugs, but also about behavior. In this presentation I describe three classes of general methods that have been employed in using drugs to understand behavioral processes. Those methods are: 1. Using drugs as stimuli that enter directly into conventional behavioral relations. 2. Using a drug as “added” stimulus or source of perturbation. 3. Using drugs to alter behavioral performance in particular ways. Examples of all three methods will be presented, and how they have contributed to the understanding of behavior illustrated. Finally, I shall point to interesting behavioral issues that have been identified by drug research that have yet to be analyzed fully. |
| |
| Behavioral Economics, Discounting, and Drug Dependence |
| WARREN K. BICKEL (University of Vermont) |
| Abstract: Behavioral Economics examines conditions that influence the consumption of commodities and provides several concepts that may be instrumental in understanding drug dependence. One such concept of significance is that of how delayed reinforcers are discounted by drug dependent individuals. Discounting of delayed reinforcers refers to the observation that the value of a delayed reinforcer is discounted (reduced in value or considered to be worth less) compared to the value of an immediate reinforcer. This paper examines how delay discounting may provide an understanding of both impulsivity and loss of control exhibited by the drug dependent. In so doing, the paper suggests that discounting is a evolutionary endowment, that the drug dependent discount the future considerably more than non-dependent individuals, and that extreme discounting is a reversible effect of drug use in the drug dependent. Finally, future directions for the study of discounting are discussed, including the study of loss of control and loss aversion among drug dependent individuals, and the relationship of discounting to both the behavioral economic measure of elasticity. |
| |
| Contributions of Behavioral Pharmacology to the Experimental Analysis of Behavior: Contingencies and Stimulus Functions |
| M. JACKSON MARR (Georgia Tech) |
| Abstract: Behavioral pharmacology has made major contributions to behavior analysis through several means. The early contributors to the field were largely, if not exclusively interested in discovering and investigating behavioral phenomena, and thus they tended to focus on behavioral principles and variables as they related to drug effects. Descriptive and explanatory schemes continue to depend vitally on a careful behavioral analysis in what Nagel would have called “homogenous reduction”. Drugs can be treated as an environmental interventions imposed upon on-going contingencies, including special histories and contexts. The selectivity of drugs in modifying behavior are viewed as differentially affecting particular aspects entering into a behavioral account, for example, rates of responding, stimulus control, maintaining events, drug-contingency interactions, etc. Some examples will be presented to illustrate how drug effects can enlighten and challenge our understanding of behavioral principles. In one case, a drug is shown to establish and maintain a performance not easily achievable by any other means. In another, drugs are used to explore stimulus functions in various contingencies. Attempts to establish brain-behavior relations (“heterogeneous reduction”) through pharmacological investigations will depend absolutely on understanding behavioral mechanisms. Curiously, drugs themselves may contribute to this understanding. |
|
| |