Reinforcement of Verbal Social Behavior in Moderately Retarded Children

1968 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert F. McClure
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Reinforcement Contingency ◽  
Contingent Reinforcement ◽  
Verbal Instructions ◽  
Social Responding

Operant conditioning techniques were used to study talking behavior of retarded peers. A design using concurrent verbal and nonverbal operants was devised to test several hypotheses. Verbal social responding increased in a group with contingent reinforcement and verbal instructions about the reinforcement contingency but not in groups with either condition alone.

Fish displaying and infants sucking: The operant side of the social behavior coin

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-255
Author(s):  
Edmund Fantino ◽  
Stephanie Stolarz-Fantino
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Infant Behavior ◽  
Feed Forward ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complete Account

We applaud Domjan et al. for providing an elegant account of Pavlovian feed-forward mechanisms in social behavior that eschews the pitfall of purposivism. However, they seem to imply that they have provided a complete account without provision for operant conditioning. We argue that operant conditioning plays a central role in social behavior, giving examples from fish and infant behavior.

Operant Conditioning of the GSR Using Partial Reinforcement

1966 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 571-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Greene
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Partial Reinforcement ◽  
Noncontingent Reinforcement ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Extinction Period ◽  
Contingent Reinforcement ◽  
Visual Reinforcement ◽  
Stimulation Control

This study was designed to determine the influence of partial reinforcement upon the rate of emission of unelicited GSRs. 90 college students were divided into 2 groups with respect to delivery of visual reinforcement, Contingent (C) and Noncontingent (NC). The Contingent group was divided further into 3 subgroups, each of which received a different schedule of partial reinforcement; each contingent group had a yoked Noncontingent control. The over-all rate of responding was greater during Contingent reinforcement than Noncontingent reinforcement. Among the Contingent groups the effect of partial reinforcement was maximal during the initial minute of acquisition and the initial minutes of extinction. During the extinction period the Contingent and the Noncontingent groups tended to converge. A no-stimulation control group showed fairly steady responding during the last 32 min.

Verbal Conditioning without Awareness Using a Highly Discriminable, Monetary Reinforcer

1976 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth B. Koffer ◽  
Grant Coulson ◽  
Leslie Hammond
Keyword(s):  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Reinforcement Contingency ◽  
Verbal Conditioning ◽  
Target Response ◽  
The Third

During discussion of a variety of topics by 2 undergraduates a target response, 1 of 3 affirmatives, was reinforced by one of the discussants by delivery of a nickel. Although nickel delivery increased the frequency of the target response, neither of the 2 subjects could describe the reinforcement contingency until the end of the third session. It was concluded that operant conditioning without awareness occurred even when the response was reinforced by the highly discriminable event of delivery of a nickel.

scholarly journals Dopaminergic Synapses Mediate Neuronal Changes in an Analogue of Operant Conditioning

1999 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 1983-1987 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Nargeot ◽  
D. A. Baxter ◽  
G. W. Patterson ◽  
J. H. Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Behavior ◽  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Dopamine Antagonist ◽  
Synaptic Connections ◽  
Contingent Reinforcement ◽  
Motor Patterns ◽  
Buccal Ganglia ◽  
Stimulation Of

Dopaminergic synapses mediate neuronal changes in an analogue of operant conditioning. Feeding behavior in Aplysiacan be modified by operant conditioning in which contingent reinforcement is conveyed by the esophageal nerve (E n.). A neuronal analogue of this conditioning in the isolated buccal ganglia was developed by using stimulation of E n. as an analogue of contingent reinforcement. Previous studies indicated that E n. may release dopamine. We used a dopamine antagonist (methylergonovine) to investigate whether dopamine mediated the enhancement of motor patterns in the analogue of operant conditioning. Methylergonovine blocked synaptic connections from the reinforcement pathway and the contingent-dependent enhancement of the reinforced pattern. These results suggest that dopamine mediates at least part of the neuronal modifications induced by contingent reinforcement.

A Comparison between “Aware” and “Naive” Conditions in the Suppression of GSR Activity

1974 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger J. Quy ◽  
Edward W. Kubiak
Keyword(s):  
Significant Interaction ◽  
Negative Reinforcement ◽  
Inhibitory Effect ◽  
Reinforcement Contingency ◽  
Contingent Reinforcement ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Instructional Set

“Aware” (A) and “naive” (N) groups received different instructional sets, the former being informed both of the nature of their task and the response-reinforcement contingency. Negative reinforcement was given to these groups whenever a spontaneous GSR was emitted during four 4-min trial periods. Two corresponding yoked-control groups, CA and CN, received non-contingent reinforcement over the same periods. The contingent reinforcement groups both showed learned suppression of spontaneous GSR activity, but comparison between the A and N groups revealed a significant interaction between Time and Instructional Set. It is suggested that the “aware” instructional set had an inhibitory effect upon learning.

Selection of Consequences: Adaptive Behavior from Random Reinforcement

1985 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Marken
Keyword(s):  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Adaptive Behavior ◽  
Reinforcement Contingency ◽  
Apparent Effect ◽  
Human Operant ◽  
Conditioning Experiment ◽  
Random Reinforcement ◽  
Random Change ◽  
Selection Of

The behavior of subjects in a human operant conditioning experiment was “shaped” using a random reinforcement contingency. Bar-press responses kept a moving cursor near a target although the consequence of each response was a random change in the direction of the cursor. The apparent effect of reinforcement on behavior is shown to be an illusion created by ignoring the consistency of behavioral results.

REINFORCEMENT OF APPROACHING CONSPECIFICS IN ZEBRAFISH (DANIO RERIO) USING A REAL-TIME 3D TRACKING SYSTEM.

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-381
Author(s):  
Toshikazu Kuroda
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Danio Rerio ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
Reinforcement Contingency ◽  
Experimental Setup ◽  
Female Fish ◽  
3D Tracking ◽  
Thin Glass ◽  
Approach Response

Zebrafish offer a promising animal model for examining relations between biological and behavioral processes. In addition to their fully sequenced genome, general principles of behavior observed in other species appear also in zebrafish. The fish also exhibit social behavior when placed together with conspecifics. The present research investigated whether reinforcement contingencies increase the approach to conspecifics with four pairs of zebrafish. For each pair, a male and a female fish were placed in different compartments of an aquarium separated by a thin glass partition. Their movement was tracked in 3D and in real time. Food reinforcers were delivered on their approach toward each other. For two of the four pairs, the approach response was higher in the presence of the reinforcement contingency than when food was absent or presented independently of approach responses. The other two pairs initially showed an increase in the approach response upon the introduction of the reinforcement contingency but the response was not maintained. Despite unreliability in the acquisition of the approach response, improvements in the experimental setup discussed herein could provide more reliable tests of how reinforcement contingencies influence the approach response. Relations of approaching conspecifics to social behavior are discussed.

Relationships of Extraversion-Introversion to Verbal Operant Conditioning for Aware and Unaware Subjects

1972 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 848-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Miller ◽  
Florence Minten
Keyword(s):  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Reinforcement Contingency ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
Verbal Operant

Extraversion-Introversion was compared to verbal operant conditioning, separately for Ss aware of the response-reinforcement contingency and for Ss unaware. It was proposed that Eysenck's hypothesis which states that introverts condition more effectively than extraverts would hold only for unaware Ss. Both aware and unaware Ss conditioned. But there were no significant relationships between extraversion-introversion and conditioning, either for all Ss or for aware Ss or for unaware Ss. The hypothesis was not supported.

Selection by consequences

1984 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 477-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. F. Skinner
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Human Species ◽  
Joint Product ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Selection By Consequences ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractHuman behavior is the joint product of (i) contingencies of survival responsible for natural selection, and (ii) contingencies of reinforcement responsible for the repertoires of individuals, including (iii) the special contingencies maintained by an evolved social environment. Selection by consequences is a causal mode found only in living things, or in machines made by living things. It was first recognized in natural selection: Reproduction, a first consequence, led to the evolution of cells, organs, and organisms reproducing themselves under increasingly diverse conditions. The behavior functioned well, however, only under conditions similar to those under which it was selected.Reproduction under a wider range of consequences became possible with the evolution of processes through which organisms acquired behavior appropriate to novel environments. One of these, operant conditioning, is a second kind of selection by consequences: New responses could be strengthened by events which followed them. When the selecting consequences are the same, operant conditioning and natural selection work together redundantly. But because a species which quickly acquires behavior appropriate to an environment has less need for an innate repertoire, operant conditioning could replace as well as supplement the natural selection of behavior.Social behavior is within easy range of natural selection, because other members are one of the most stable features of the environment of a species. The human species presumably became more social when its vocal musculature came under operant control. Verbal behavior greatly increased the importance of a third kind of selection by consequences, the evolution of social environments or cultures. The effect on the group, and not the reinforcing consequences for individual members, is responsible for the evolution of culture.

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