{"title":"From data through discount rates to the area under the curve","authors":"Peter R. Killeen","doi":"10.1002/jeab.888","DOIUrl":"10.1002/jeab.888","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The rate of discounting future goods is a crucial factor in intertemporal trade-offs, upon which depends not only individual well-being but also that of our planet: How much privation now for a temperate future for our grandchildren? What is the best way to measure how the value of future goods decreases with its delay? The most accurate discount functions involve several covarying parameters, making interpretation equivocal. A universal and robust measure is the area under the discount curve, the <i>AuC</i>. The <i>AuC</i> of a hyperbolic discount function is a logarithmic function of the discount rate, <i>k</i>. The same integral also approximates the area under a hyperboloid function. A simple technique converts each datum into estimates of the discount rate, eliminating rogue data points in the process. These trimmed estimates are converted into areas and tested against data, where they succeed at predicting the <i>AuC</i> and its relation to log(<i>k</i>).</p>","PeriodicalId":17411,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138176522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jan De Houwer, Martin Finn, Yannick Boddez, Sean Hughes, Jamie Cummins
{"title":"Relating different perspectives on how outcomes of behavior influence behavior","authors":"Jan De Houwer, Martin Finn, Yannick Boddez, Sean Hughes, Jamie Cummins","doi":"10.1002/jeab.887","DOIUrl":"10.1002/jeab.887","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Many researchers have tackled the question of how behavior is influenced by its outcomes. Some have adopted a nonmechanistic (functional) perspective that attempts to describe the influence of outcomes on behavior. Others have adopted a mechanistic (cognitive) perspective that attempts to explain the influence of outcomes on behavior. Orthogonal to this distinction, some have focused on the influence of outcomes that a behavior had in the past, whereas others also consider the influence of outcomes that a behavior might have in the future. In this article, we relate these different perspectives with the goal of reducing misunderstandings and fostering collaborations between researchers who adopt different perspectives on the common question of how behavior is influenced by its outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":17411,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50158260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evidence of precurrent responses expanding equivalence classes in a delayed matching-to-sample task","authors":"Giovan W. Ribeiro, Deisy G. de Souza","doi":"10.1002/jeab.886","DOIUrl":"10.1002/jeab.886","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Delayed matching to sample (DMTS) increases the probability of equivalence class formation. Precurrent responses can mediate the retention interval in DMTS trials and control the selection of comparisons. In human participants, precurrent responses usually consist of naming the experimental stimuli based on their similarities to meaningful stimuli with preexperimental history. We tested whether precurrents expand classes by serving as nodes between experimental and meaningful stimuli. A DMTS (2 s) was used throughout the entire experiment. Eleven undergraduates learned A1B1 and A2B2 relations and then were submitted to ArC trials that required them to answer math problems presented during the DMTS interval: when the sample was A1, the problems resulted in 12 and C1 was correct; when the sample was A2, they resulted in 9 and C2 was correct. Response-as-node tests assessed whether participants would relate B1 and C1 to the printed number 12 and B2 and C2 to the printed number 9. Ten participants responded accordingly to this pattern, showing that the responses to the problems expanded the classes. Parity tests using the words “even” and “odd” further confirmed this hypothesis. These results contribute to understanding why DMTS enhances equivalence performances. Implications of using this procedure in stimulus-equivalence studies are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":17411,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41136527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stimulus control of a social operant","authors":"Kennon A. Lattal, Hiroto Okouchi","doi":"10.1002/jeab.878","DOIUrl":"10.1002/jeab.878","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Three pigeon dyads were exposed to a two-component multiple schedule comprised of two tandem variable-interval 30-s interresponse time (IRT) > 3-s schedules in the presence of different stimuli. Pecks to keys by both pigeons of a dyad occurring within 500 ms of one another were required for reinforcement under one tandem schedule (the coordination component), and such coordinated responses were not required under the other (the control component). The terminal link of each schedule ensured that the reinforced coordination response was an IRT > 3 s. Rates of coordinated IRTs > 3 s and total rates of coordinated responses (composed of IRTs > 3 s and IRTs ≤ 3 s) were higher in the coordination components than in either of two different control components in which coordination was not required for reinforcement. This difference in coordinated responses in the presence and absence of the coordination requirement under stimulus control transitorily deteriorated and then was reestablished when the relation between the stimulus and the coordination contingency or its absence was reversed. The results show coordinated responding to function as a discriminated social operant.</p>","PeriodicalId":17411,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41136529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carlos Eduardo Costa, André Connor de Méo Luiz, Lucas Franco Carmona, Guilherme Dutra Ponce, Roberto Alves Banaco, Kennon A. Lattal
{"title":"Response-dependent point loss and response force as disrupting operations on behavioral resistance to change in humans","authors":"Carlos Eduardo Costa, André Connor de Méo Luiz, Lucas Franco Carmona, Guilherme Dutra Ponce, Roberto Alves Banaco, Kennon A. Lattal","doi":"10.1002/jeab.885","DOIUrl":"10.1002/jeab.885","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Behavioral momentum theory (BMT) provides a theoretical and methodological framework for understanding how differentially maintained operant responding resists disruption. A common way to test operant resistance involves contingencies with suppressive effects, such as extinction or prefeeding. Other contingencies with known suppressive effects, such as response-cost procedures arranged as point-loss or increases in response force, remain untested as disruptive events within the BMT framework. In the present set of three experiments, responding of humans was maintained by point accumulation programmed according to a multiple variable-interval (VI) VI schedule with different reinforcement rates in either of two components. Subsequently, subtracting a point following each response (Experiment 1) or increasing the force required for the response to be registered (Experiments 2 and 3 decreased response rates, but responding was less disrupted in the component associated with the higher reinforcement rate. The point-loss contingency and increased response force similarly affected response rates by suppressing responding and human persistence, replicating previous findings with humans and nonhuman animals when other types of disruptive events (e.g., extinction and prefeeding) were investigated. The present findings moreover extend the generality of the effects of reinforcement rate on persistence, and thus BMT, extending the analysis of resistance to two well-known manipulations used to reduce responding in the experimental analysis of behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":17411,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41136528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Luis Antonio Pérez-González, Héctor Martínez, Marlon Palomino
{"title":"Emergence of a three-sample conditional discrimination as foundation for reasoning capabilities","authors":"Luis Antonio Pérez-González, Héctor Martínez, Marlon Palomino","doi":"10.1002/jeab.877","DOIUrl":"10.1002/jeab.877","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We hypothesized that a three-sample conditional discrimination can emerge as a result of learning conditional discriminations with relational stimuli. After learning three first-order conditional discriminations AB, PQ, and CD, we taught a second-order conditional discrimination XAB in which X1 indicated selection of related stimuli (e.g., A1 and B1) and X2 of unrelated stimuli (e.g., A1 and B2). Then, we probed the emergence of conditional discriminations PQX and XCD in which the X stimuli were comparisons and contextual stimuli, respectively. Finally, a conditional discrimination was probed with stimuli P, Q, and C as samples and D1 and D2 as comparisons. When the P and Q stimuli were related (and related to X1 in PQX), all participants selected the D stimulus that was related to the C stimulus (D1 when C1 was present and D2 when C2 was present); when the P and Q stimuli were unrelated (and related to X2 in PQX), they selected the D stimulus unrelated to the C stimulus (D2 when C1 and D1 when C2), which demonstrated emergence based on the relations established among all stimuli. In Experiment 2, the teaching of XAB was omitted and only one in six participants demonstrated emergence, which indicated that relational stimuli X1 and X2 played an important role in emergence. Thus, a new type of emergence that mimics analogical reasoning was demonstrated. The obtained outcome suggests that this procedure provides a learning foundation for acquiring reasoning capabilities.</p>","PeriodicalId":17411,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41179194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Resurgence of goal-directed actions and habits","authors":"Shun Fujimaki, Ting Hu, Yutaka Kosaki","doi":"10.1002/jeab.884","DOIUrl":"10.1002/jeab.884","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study investigated how goal-directed and habitual behaviors recover after extinction within the context of the resurgence effect, a form of relapse induced by the removal or worsening of alternative reinforcement. Rats were trained to press a target lever with one reinforcer (O1) for either minimal (4) or extended (16) sessions. An extinction test after the completion of O1 devaluation confirmed that minimal and extended training formed goal-directed and habitual behaviors, respectively. Then, pressing an alternative lever was reinforced with a second reinforcer (O2) while the target response was placed on extinction. When O2 was discontinued, the minimally trained target response resurged with goal-directed status as in the extinction test. However, the extinguished habitual behavior in the extensively trained rats did not recover as a habit but instead with goal-directed status, possibly due to the context specificity of habits or the introduction of a new response–reinforcer contingency. The critical finding that reinforcer devaluation consistently led to less resurgence regardless of the amount of acquisition training provides a clinical implication that coupling differential-reinforcement-of-alternative-behavior (DRA) treatments with the devaluation of the associated reinforcer of problematic behavior could effectively diminish its recurrence.</p>","PeriodicalId":17411,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10246587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Theory of reinforcement schedules","authors":"Peter R. Killeen","doi":"10.1002/jeab.880","DOIUrl":"10.1002/jeab.880","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The three principles of reinforcement are (1) events such as incentives and reinforcers increase the activity of an organism; (2) that activity is bounded by competition from other responses; and (3) animals approach incentives and their signs, guided by their temporal and physical conditions, together called the “contingencies of reinforcement.” Mathematical models of each of these principles comprised <i>mathematical principles of reinforcement</i> (MPR; Killeen, 1994)<i>.</i> Over the ensuing decades, MPR was extended to new experimental contexts. This article reviews the basic theory and its extensions to satiation, warm-up, extinction, sign tracking, pausing, and sequential control in progressive-ratio and multiple schedules. In the latter cases, a single equation balancing target and competing responses governs behavioral contrast and behavioral momentum. Momentum is intrinsic in the fundamental equations, as behavior unspools more slowly from highly aroused responses conditioned by higher rates of incitement than it does from responses from leaner contexts. Habits are responses that have accrued substantial behavioral momentum. Operant responses, being predictors of reinforcement, are approached by making them: The sight and feel of a paw on a lever is approached by placing paw on lever, as attempted for any sign of reinforcement. Behavior in concurrent schedules is governed by approach to momentarily richer patches (melioration). Applications of MPR in behavioral pharmacology and delay discounting are noted.</p>","PeriodicalId":17411,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10598239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thiago H. S. Martins, Raone M. Rodrigues, Felipe C. O. Araújo, Átila M. Cedro, Renato Bortoloti, André A. B. Varella, Edson M. Huziwara
{"title":"Transfer of functions based on equivalence class formation using musical stimuli","authors":"Thiago H. S. Martins, Raone M. Rodrigues, Felipe C. O. Araújo, Átila M. Cedro, Renato Bortoloti, André A. B. Varella, Edson M. Huziwara","doi":"10.1002/jeab.881","DOIUrl":"10.1002/jeab.881","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Empirical evidence has supported that musical excerpts written in major and minor modes are responsible for evoking happiness and sadness, respectively. In this study, we evaluated whether the emotional content evoked by musical stimuli would transfer to abstract figures when they became members of the same equivalence class. Participants assigned to the experimental group were submitted to a training procedure to form equivalence classes comprising musical excerpts (A) and meaningless abstract figures (B, C, and D). Afterward, transfer of function was evaluated using a semantic differential. Participants in the control group showed positive semantic differential scores for major mode musical excerpts, negative scores for minor mode musical excerpts, and neutral scores for the B, C, and D stimuli. Participants in the experimental groups showed positive semantic differential scores for visual stimuli equivalent to the major modes and negative semantic differential scores for visual stimuli equivalent to the minor modes. These results indicate transfer of function of emotional content present in musical stimuli through equivalence class formation. These findings could provide a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of using emotional stimuli in equivalence class formation experiments and in transfer of function itself.</p>","PeriodicalId":17411,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10246583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Real, potentially real, and hypothetical monetary rewards in probability discounting","authors":"Hiroto Okouchi","doi":"10.1002/jeab.882","DOIUrl":"10.1002/jeab.882","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Although hypothetical rewards have been used almost exclusively in human discounting studies, investigations of their validity are limited. The present experiment compared the discounting of monetary reward value by probability across conditions in which the rewards were real, potentially real, and hypothetical. Twenty-four undergraduates choose between an uncertain large reward and a certain small reward 60 times (trials). In the real and hypothetical reward conditions, the participants made choices with real and hypothetical money, respectively, in every trial. In the potentially real condition, they did so with real money in randomly selected three of the 60 trials and with hypothetical money in the remainder. The log<sub>10</sub>-transformed <i>h</i> values of a hyperbolic probability-discount function and the values of the area under the curve with an ordinal transformation of odds against were higher and lower, respectively, in the potentially real and in the hypothetical reward conditions than in the real reward condition, demonstrating that the probability discounting of hypothetical monetary rewards was larger than that of real rewards. These results suggest that future studies are required to identify why the hypothetical reward procedure overestimates the discounting rates of real rewards.</p>","PeriodicalId":17411,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10193894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}