Herbert Kaye

Conditioned sucking in the human newborn

Classical conditioning of the sucking response was demonstrated. Sucking in response to a tone was greater in infants who received paired presentations of the tone and a sucking device than in infants who received unpaired presentations of the same stimuli.

Enhancement of neonatal sucking through reinforcement

Abstract A study of neonatal behavior demonstrated that reinforcement with a dextrose solution of a tube-sucking response enhances tube sucking rate, while cessation of such reinforcement has an opposite effect. The gradual nature of the acquisition and decremental processes under these conditions, along with inferences made possible by control procedures, enable the conclusion that these effects were attributable to conditioning.

The effects of feeding and tonal stimulation on non-nutritive sucking in the human newborn☆

Abstract This study was designed to examine the potentiality of the infants sucking response as the dependent variable in the psychophysical study of tone intensity discrimination. One hundred and twenty newborn infants between the ages of 47 and 110 hours were examined in two 3 × 4 factorial designs to determine the interaction of feeding and tonal stimulation on sucking behavior. The hypothesis was that amount of recovery of initial sucking levels after suppression by feeding would be a function of the intensity of tone with which the infant was stimulated. The three amounts of liquid given in Exp. I were zero, 10 and 20 cc of water; in Exp. II, 0, 20, and 40 cc of a 5% dextrose and water solution. Feeding was accomplished between a 4-minute base line period during which sucking pressure records were taken for use as prefeeding rates, and a test period consisting of 20 consecutive minutes of sucking opportunity. During the test period infants received 10 seconds of tonal stimulation each 30 seconds, the four intensity levels being zero, 10, 20, and 30 db above the noise level of the room. Each cell of both 3 × 4 experiments contained 5 S s. Results showed a direct and immediate decremental effect of amount of liquid consumed on subsequent test sucking rate, this being a function of the initial base line response level. There were no statistical differences between the rates for the no , low , or medium levels of tone stimulation, but the loud did increase responding over time, the effects seeming to cumulate. Incidental findings included small but significant correlations between baseline response rate and both birth weight and age at time of testing. Analysis of startle responses indicated that this may be a more sensitive measure of discriminative ability in the psychophysical study of the newborn.

TWO ATTEMPTS TO DEMONSTRATE TONAL SUPPRESSION OF NON-NUTRITIVE SUCKING IN NEONATES

Seventy newborn children were studied to examine the effects of tone presentation on sucking rates. A time-contingent and response-contingent procedure were employed respectively in two separate studies. No differences were found between the experimental groups and control groups receiving no tone. Methodological implications are briefly mentioned.

The conditioned Babkin reflex in human newborns

A study is reported which appears to obtain conditioned responding in the human newborn through the pairing of a recently discovered hand-mouth reflex with a kinesthetic conditioning stimulus. The procedure, which is short and does not require elaborate equipment, has potential usefulness as a test for differential conditionability of newborns.

Work decrement and rest recovery during non-nutritive sucking in the human neonate☆

Abstract An earlier study has indicated that vigorously sucking babies will show a decline in rates during a 3-minute sucking opportunity, but that a forced rest period of 3-minutes between sucking periods will produce full recovery of initial rates. The current study was designed to explore temporal and tactual parameters producing this recovery. Four groups of at least 10 S s were given the following treatments: Group I continuous sucking for 10 minutes; Group II: sucking for 5 minutes, the nipple being withdrawn and replaced immediately for an additional 5 minutes; Group III: 1 minute pause between two 5-minute sucking periods. Group IV: 5-minute pause between two 5-minute sucking periods. Groups I and II showed an initial drop over the first 3 minutes and remained at a constant level for the remaining 7 minutes. Groups III and IV were not significantly different from each other and showed complete recovery of initial levels during the rest period. Recovery scems to be a function of the interval separating two sucking opportunities, and simple re-entry of the stimulus into the infants mouth is not a pertinent factor. Two opposing response-produced processes are suggested as the basis for the initial decrement.

Operant avoidance in a rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatto) during the first month of life

Standard procedures were used to shape the bar-pressing avoidance response in a rhesus infant within the first month of life. By overlapping the last second of a 15-sec. tone with shock, termination of the tone was eventually sufficient stimulus change to reinforce successive approximations to the bar-press response. Eight sessions of 1 hr. or less, given over a 12-day period, yielded apparent FR 2 schedule control, the two responses being required within the first 14 sec. of tone to terminate the tone and avoid the shock.