Association for Behavior Analysis International

Economic demand for alcoholic beverages can be assessed using the Alcohol Purchase Task (APT) where participants hypothetically buy drinks at set prices. The APT allows for detailed behavioral economic analyses including elasticity and breakpoint. In this experiment, participants were presented a scenario, completed a shortened version of the APT, watched 1 of 4 videos (pro-alcohol, anti-alcohol, neutral-alcohol and neutrol-no alcohol), were presented a second scenario, and then completed a second, but distinct, version of the APT. A full 4 (videos) X 2 (scenario order) factorial experiment was conducted, allowing for both between-conditions and within-subjects analyses. Results from sixty-one participants (n=61) suggest some influence of the different videos and scenarios. For example, economic demand for alcohol was significantly reduced by exposure to an anti-alcohol video in one scenario order, but not the other. However, the demand characteristics of the survey itself may have produced some of these effects. A full comparison of conditions, as well as an increase in sample sizes may assist in interpreting whether or not exposure to videos changes economic demand for alcohol.

Polydrug use is a common problem among patients in opioid substitution treatment, and can be difficult to treat. Abstinence reinforcement can decrease polydrug use when contingencies target single drugs sequentially, until abstinence is obtained for each drug. The present study examined effects of sequential administration of drug-abstinence contingencies delivered based on time – rather than on obtained abstinence. Adults in opioid substitution treatment (n = 91) were invited to work in the Therapeutic Workplace – an employment-based intervention for drug addiction – for 3 months. Participants gained access to paid work ($10/hr maximum) by providing urine samples three times per week. The urine samples were then tested for opiates and cocaine. During an induction period, participants earned maximum pay independent of drug abstinence. After induction, the amount of pay was contingent upon providing urine samples that were negative for opiates. Two weeks later, the amount of pay was contingent upon providing urine samples that were negative for both opiates and cocaine. Analyses of urine samples collected before and after the contingencies showed that abstinence from opiates and cocaine increased significantly after the contingencies were implemented. The results will be discussed in terms of previous research on abstinence-reinforcement interventions that target polydrug use.

Correct navigation, or the ability to remember where you are, has been attributed to the role of memory and neurobiological mechanisms. The neuroscientific literature implicates the hippocampus in spatial navigation, for example. While such accounts are important to consider, it is imperative to isolate functional relations between environmental events and behavior. Specifically, contingencies may select for certain patterns of behavior considered in spatial navigation. This study sought to examine such influences on navigation behaviors of adult human participants in a virtual simulation of a maze using the MazeSuite software. The maze design was adapted from Morris’ (1984) ‘water maze’ typically used on rats. Rats are dropped in a circular tub filled with opaque water and swim until they discover a hidden platform to stand on and escape the water. Subsequent trials show that rats get faster at finding the platform. Tests are then made to determine whether the rat was responding to spatial cues (i.e., stimulus-stimulus configurations of the environment), or responding to proprioceptive-based cues (i.e., stimulus-response properties). In similar fashion, participants navigate the same maze repeatedly until they have had practice encountering the hidden platform, or end goal, while the program takes measures of path length, duration, and virtual velocity. Tests are then implemented where hidden walls are placed in the same maze that blocks the movement of the user, thereby forcing them to remember direction, or S-R relations. However, if participants were using S-S cues to navigate, performance should very little be disrupted. Preliminary results of this study are discussed along with theoretical implications and future research.

The purpose of this study was to examine how positive reinforcement influences both the behavioral and neural stroop effects. More specifically, we examined how reaction time data and Event Related Potentials (ERPs) vary for congruent vs incongruent conditions within a Stroop task administered with and without positive reinforcement. The research question addressed was if positive reinforcement affected response competition as measured by lower Reaction Time in the congruent condition compared to the incongruent condition. Behavioral and EEG data collected on 16 participants are discussed.

Neuromodulation is one of the physiological mechanisms involved in selection by reinforcement of environment-behavior relations. Different neuromodulatory systems appear to be differentially responsive to appetitive and aversive stimuli, and they also partially innervate non-overlapping brain areas, creating an interesting behavioral and neuroanatomical mechanistic puzzle. Here we review the behavioral neuroscience and neuroanatomical literature on the Dopaminergic and Cholinergic systems. Our goal is to eventually propose a neuro-operant framework describing the interactions among all systems involved in neuromodulation.