Association for Behavior Analysis International

In current study, the researcher worked on reducing vocal stereotypy in a child with autism who is 6 years old. Functional analysis were conducted in order to find out the variables evoking the behavior. And also the treatment procedure is designed based on the report and data of functional analysis. Further we implemented the treatment procedures like differential reinforcement of alternative behavior, differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior and extinction in order to determine whether vocal stereotypy could be reduced successfully. Preferred items are delivered on FR1 schedule initially and the schedule was thinned gradually during later sessions. Implementation of DRI &DRA schedule led to a high reduction in the problem behavior during treatment sessions and across the school day .There was an increase in appropriate communication was also observed. Follow-up probes implied that the treatment had a positive impact in the natural environment.

Previous research has lighted that a conditional discrimination can be acquired and generalized using training conditions that do not demand an explicit instrumental response (observational training). Even though there are a wide variety of observational procedures, all of them include showing the matching array and providing information regarding the correct matching response (modeling). It has been accepted that learning occurs due to implicit verbal responses derived from the attention response to the modeling component of the training procedure. In this research, an eye-tracker was used in order to register attention responses during an observational training using a second-order matching-to-sample task. In order to compare visual exploration of the matching array during an observational training in comparison with an instrumental training, 17 university students were divided into two groups. One group was exposed to an instrumental training and another was exposed to an observational training. Data showed that there are similar patterns of observation independently the type of training. Two distinct patterns arose: looking to the array as a whole or looking to the array as divided into components. Participants using the first type of pattern showed poor performance. However, not all participants using the latter pattern showed good performance.

This research suggests that coordinated response allocation under concurrent variable interval schedules of reinforcement can be partially described by The Generalised Matching Law (Baum, 1974) in a similar way to the responses of individual humans and non-human animals responding alone are. The Generalised Matching Law (GML) describes how choice or behavioral allocation is effected by variables such as the amount, duration or value of reinforcement delivered contingent on a behaviour. Much of the research in this area has focused on responding where reinforcement delivery is contingent solely on the behaviour of an individual organism (for a review see Michael, 1988). There are, however, many natural situations where distribution of responses is contingent on the coordinated behaviours of two or more organisms, rather than the sum of an organisms individual responses. Coordinated behaviour can be defined as the behaviour of two or more organisms occurring in a specific order, resulting in the production or removal environmental consequences. The present paper presents results from three experimental groups in which pairs of participants responded under different concurrent variable interval (VI) schedules where reinforcement was contingent on the coordinated responding of the individuals within the pairs. Twelve pairs of human participants were randomly allocated to one of the three different experimental groups. Pairs played a game on a 12x12 chessboard on a computer. Each individual controlled one of two playing pieces on the board. Two corners on the board formed the active areas of the board whereby points could be attained contingent on each players playing piece being placed on an adjacent square to the others during the active VI schedules of that corner. As such, the result of coordinated responding, but not individual responses was reinforced. The results show that relative rates of coordinated responding matched the relative rates of reinforcement under the VI schedules for most of the pairs of participants. This suggests that The GML may also account for the establishment and maintenance of cooperation.

Research on categorization and concept learning is one of the most important issues of behavior analysis. However, it has not been sufficiently analyzed on the behaviorist tradition due to the cognitive connotation of the terms. Zentall, Galizio & Critchfield (2002) has considered that a relational concept involves responding to relational properties instead of absolute properties of stimuli. Thus, the present research aimed to analyze the conditions that promote a relational type of learning in which relevant relationships among instance properties are taken into consideration to group stimulus objects in a categorization task. Twenty college students were divided into four groups. Each group was exposed to a categorization training in which 54 printed objects were organized on grids of different sizes (2x4, 3x4 & 4x4). Groups differed on the type of instructions that received by the experimenter (modeling or guiding performance) and the type of descriptions elicited (spontaneous or guided verbalization). Data analysis would provide evidence of the effectiveness of modeling and rule-following in learning a relational concept. Results were also discussed in terms of the effect of the use of verbal labels in the discrimination of stimulus properties, and the role of verbalization in the emergence of symbolic behavior.

Increased interest in behavioral studies of small fish has been inspired by recent advances in DNA sequencing of zebrafish and guppies, and by the discovery that archer fish, which lack a neocortex, are able to recognize human faces. Automated operant conditioning of such small fish is challenging because responding is difficult to measure and because each food reward must be tiny. To resolve these problems, we developed a low-cost experimental tank having a video-tracking system with an automated feeder. A LCD monitor positioned at the front of a tank displays visual stimuli through two windows on the front wall. Video tracking is performed by a Ras-Pi Camera located 120mm under the floor of the tank. The tank has two operant choice areas that match the two windows, along with a middle neutral area and a rear observing area. Visits to the observing area initiate a trial that provides visual discriminative stimuli onto the two windows, and the fish must swim to the correct choice area to earn food. The fish must return to the observing area to begin the next trial. This video tracking apparatus is useful for discrimination and choice experiments and for differential reinforcement of swimming patterns.

We have been studying on the reinforcement histories which affect the choice. In this presentation, we will report two topics: (1) the effect of schedule thinning on high-cost high-reward choice, and (2) the experience of variable reinforcer amount on variability preference. In the schedule thinning experiments, university students experienced five sessions of concurrent-chains procedure. The concurrent-chains have two alternatives and they were different in fixed-ratio (FR) value and reinforcement amount while value-reinforcement ratio was constant. When the response requirement for higher-cost alternative increased gradually from 20 to 40, some participants showed gradual increase in the high-cost high-reward choice through the schedule thinning procedure. In the reinforcement amount variability experiment, students were tested with conc. FR 1 FR 1. In the fixed-amount alternative, reinforcement was always 20 points. In the variable-amount alternative, reinforcement varied 8, 16, 24, 32 points per trial. After they experienced simple FR 1 schedule with fixed-amount or variable-amount reinforcer for 200 trials, their preference for variable-amount reinforcement were tested again with conc. FR 1 FR 1 schedule. This experiment is ongoing and we are finding some participants show the possibility to change their choice due to the influence of their history.

Previous research has shown that simulated slot machine gambling can be brought under control of contextual cues. In an initial study, Zlomke and Dixon (2006) found that eight out of nine participants altered their response allocation following conditional discrimination training with colors as contextual cues. Later studies have either shown mixed results or results similar to Zlomke and Dixon but with a less strong change in preference. Several steps has been taken to extend and improve the methods used in Zlomke and Dixon. The present experiment aimed to investigate the effect of three different reinforcer probabilities on the two machines. 30 participants were randomly assigned to three groups. Group 1 experienced testing with an RR schedule in which the probability of reinforcement was .5 for both machines; Group 2 experienced an RR schedule with a .2 probability of reinforcement on the less than machine and .8 probability on the more than machine; Group 3 experienced an RR schedule with a .2 probability of reinforcement on both machines. The results showed than only participants in Group 2, demonstrated and altered preference for color similar to the results in Zlomke and Dixon study. The result indicates, that the increase in responding on the more than colored slot machine in Group 2 might be influenced by the reinforcement contingencies arranged in test and are not solely a result of the conditional discrimination training

Six participants (Experimental Group) were trained to perform an identity matching-to-sample task with abstract form stimuli (A1A1, A2A2, A3A3, B1B1, B2B2 and B3B3). Correct responding resulted in the presentation of points and logos representing three stores (Sr1, Sr2 and Sr3) specifically related to each one of the potential stimulus classes. Then, the participants were tested for the emergence of arbitrary relations involving stimulus-stimulus relations (AB and BC), and reinforce-stimulus relations (SrA and SrB) that documented the formation of three three-member equivalence classes A1B1Sr1, A2B2Sr2 and A3B3Sr3. In a subsequent phase, participants were given to identity matching-to-sample with new arbitrary form stimuli (C1, C2 and C3) and pictures of happy, angry and neutral faces (D1, D2 and D3) with class-specific reinforcers. The participants performances on AC, CA, BC, CD and SrC tests documented the inclusion of C stimuli in the original classes: A1B1C1Sr1, A2B2C2Sr2 and A3B3C3Sr3. Finally, participants were required to evaluate the arbitrary form stimuli C with semantic differentials comprised by 13 seven-level scales. A Control Group with 10 participants used the same set of seven-level scales to evaluate the emotional faces stimuli D. The median values of the evaluations by the Control Group showed that the affective valences of D1, D2 and D3 were positive, negative and neutral, respectively. Accordingly, the median values of the abstract form stimuli showed that the affective valences of the abstract form stimuli C1, C2 and C3 were positive, negative and neutral. Thus, the affective valences of the emotional faces transferred to the abstract forms indirectly related to them via class-specific reinforcers. These findings replicated and extended previous findings. They also confirm that class-specific reinforcers can mediate the transference of functions through members of equivalence classes.

When applied to lotteries in which people win points, the ideal free distribution, a model of optimal group foraging, predicts that the ratio of the numbers of players in two patches should match the ratio of the numbers of winners in these patches. An alternative proposal, however, is that the difference between the numbers of players matches the difference between the numbers of winners. The present study aimed at evaluating which of these two proposals better described group choice. In Experiment 1, groups of students were exposed to a series of lotteries. Group choice proved intermediate between the group matching of ratios and the group matching of differences. In Experiment 2, subjects were shown groups of green and red tokens (some of them identified as winning tokens) and were asked individually whether green or red was the most advantageous color. Some subjects proved sensitive to ratios, others to differences, and still others to absolute numbers of tokens or winning tokens. By incorporating these controlling variables in computer simulations of group choice, we were able to recreate the results of Experiment 1. Thus, a better understanding of group choice can be obtained by considering individual stimulus-control patterns.

Contrary to pigeons or rodents, there is no standardized operant conditioning chambers for invertebrates, and especially honey bees. Consequently, very few people studied operant behavior in insects or used reinforcement schedules in basic or applied research. We recently designed a completely automatic operant conditioning apparatus built to study bees in the laboratory during prolonged period of time with no human intervention. With our new technology, a single experimenter can now record and process easily thousands hours of bee responding and consumption. We illustrate the usefulness of our protocols with data about circadian rhythms and pharmacology.