J. Grayson Osborne

The Development of Classroom Sharing by a Teacher Using Positive Practice

A kindergarten class of five hearing-impaired children initiated and reciprocated sharing responses through the use of positive practice. Positive practice was conducted by a teacher in the regular classroom during a free-play period in which toys were available. Students who were not sharing practiced asking other students to share, and the rquested student was required to acquiesce in the sharing. Failure to acquiesce led to the positive practice of that correct role. A design which utilized individual probes interspersed among treatment sessions was employed. Positive practice resulted in more than a threefold increase in physical sharing of toys. All five children increased their physical sharing. Verbal sharing was unaffected by the procedure. Fifteen weeks after termination of the experiment, physical sharing still occurred approximately three times more often than during the initial baseline. Sharing generalized to a new teacher, a larger class with untrained students, and new toys. The results suggest that a teacher can systematically facilitate physical sharing among young children in the classroom by the use of positive practice.

A citation analysis of the influence on research of Skinner's verbal behavior

The influence of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior on the generation of verbal behavior research was examined in a citation analysis that counted the citations of the book from January 1957 to August 1983 and described the fields in which the citations occurred. In a subsequent content analysis, citations were classified as directly influenced by the book if they selected at least one of Skinner’s classes of verbal behavior for empirical examination. Directly influenced citations were sorted as descriptive, applied, or basic. The total number of citations of the book (836), the increasing annual number of citations, and the range of fields in which the book has been cited are evidence of its broad influence. However, empirical investigations employing at least one of Skinner’s classes of verbal behavior are only a small proportion (31/836) of the citations. Of this small proportion an even smaller number constitutes experimental analyses (19/836). The small proportion of empirical studies suggests that Verbal Behavior is primarily cited for reasons other than as source material for research hypotheses in the study of verbal behavior. Some speculations are offered to account for the book’s limited influence on research.

Stimulus Equivalence and Receptive Reading by Hearing-Impaired Preschool Children

In a conditional discrimination task, two 5-year-old, profoundly hearing-impaired preschool children were taught relations between 20 manually signed words, pictures of the words, and their printed...

Non-aversive reduction of cigarette smoking in two adult men in a residential setting

Two middle-aged men with mental retardation, addicted to smoking cigarettes, operated spinners that determined the probability with which they could obtain cigarettes and other items. Absence of several maladaptive behaviors permitted the operation of the spinners hourly (i.e., DRO 60 min), 16 h per day, 7 days per week. The actual frequencies of obtaining cigarettes followed the theoretical probabilities of obtaining cigarettes in all phases of the study. Presumed smoking frequencies were reduced by about 50% with associated medical benefits. Low frequencies of maladaptive behaviors were maintained throughout.

ACQUISITION, GENERALIZATION, AND CONTEXTUAL CONTROL OF TAXONOMIC AND THEMATIC RELATIONAL RESPONDING

In three experiments, college students performed either 2- or 3- comparison conditional discriminations (arbitrary matching to sample) that utilized 64 different configurations composed of drawings. Within each configuration, one comparison related to the sample taxonomically, one related thematically, and, where there was a third comparison, it did not relate to the sample. In training phases, subjects received positive verbal feedback for selections of either the taxonomic or thematic comparisons. Between training phases, subjects responded to novel configurations similar to those of training phases on which they received no feedback for their selections. For some subjects, one cycle through all the phases ended the experiment (Experiment 1); for others, in a second cycle, verbal feedback was reversed to follow selections based on the other relation and all phases were repeated (Experiment 2); and for 1 subject, contextual stimuli indicated which relation would lead to positive verbal feedback for each selection (Experiment 3). On test phases, the selections of all subjects became increasingly consistent with verbal feedback during training while the contextual stimuli reliably enabled the appropriate relations. These results suggest that human subjects respond relationally on this task, and that such relational responding can be contextually controlled.

The Emergence of Establishing Stimulus Control

The development of control of four pigeons’ keypecks by a stimulus that appeared to serve a novel function was examined. In the presence of a red key light, a peck on a white key produced food. However, before food delivery could occur, the white key light had to be produced by a peck on a green key. Of interest was whether subjects would eventually peck the green key to produce the white keylight only after onset of the red keylight. Such an outcome would be consistent with the description of establishing stimulus control (Michael, 1982). Acquisition of apparent establishing stimulus control was observed in the responding of each pigeon and was maintained in the responding of three of the four birds. Four response patterns described performances on over 93% of the trials for these three pigeons. A latencies per opportunity analysis showed that these same three pigeons responded as if key pecks were controlled by onset of the red keylight. When a variable-time schedule controlled onset of the red keylight, pigeons were more likely to wait for onset of the red keylight to peck the green key when time to red keylight onset was relatively short. These results provide support for the existence of a fourth stimulus function, but leave open the question of the utility of the term, establishing stimulus, as a label for that function.

Beyond Skinner? A review of relational frame theory: A post-skinnerian account of human language and cognition by Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, and Roche.

In their book, Relational Frame Theory: A Post-Skinnerian Account of Human Language and Cognition (2001), Hayes, Barnes-Holmes and Roche challenge behavior analysts to put aside Skinner and Verbal Behavior in favor of relational frame theory’s approach to human language and cognition. However, when viewed from the contexts of behavior analysis, the principles of behavior analysis, and the principles of the founder of behavior analysis, Relational Frame Theory fits squarely in the Skinnerian, behavior analytic tradition. As with Verbal Behavior, Relational Frame Theory and its theses may be thought of as logical and empirical extensions of that which precedes them.

Predicting taxonomic and thematic relational responding.

Pairs of pictures were classified by the authors and others as related by identity (A-A), basic taxonomy (A-B), superordinate taxonomy (A-C), or by theme (A-D). Two-choice matching-to-sample trial types were composed of these same picture pairs in which the sample was common to the two stimulus pairs in each configuration and, together with the sample, each comparison exemplified one of the relations in the picture pair; that is: A(AB), A(AC), A(AD), A(BC), A(BD), and A(CD). In five experiments, for each picture pair, college students classified the relation (as taxonomic or thematic) and rated its strength (Exps 1, 3) or its similarity (Exp 4); others matched to sample the foregoing trial types only (Exps 2, 5), or they classified and rated, too (Exp 3). With exceptions, students classed most pairs as the authors did. They also collectively ordered relational strengths from (1) identity, (2) basic taxonomy, and (3) theme, to (4) superordinate taxonomy based, in part, on the similarity of sample and comparison. Subjects chose the comparisons of the more strongly related picture pairs in the matching-to-sample task on 90 percent or more of the configurations. Subjects’ selections in two-choice, matching-to-sample configurations using natural stimuli may be based on existing stimulus control topographies such as those exhibited by ratings of the relations in a configuration.

Free-time as a consequence for behavior in classroom settings: A critical review

Osborne (1969) presented adolescent hearing impaired students with five minutes of free- time contingent upon remaining seated for 15 minutes in the classroom. This procedure substantially reduced the frequency of out- of- seat behavior. Since the publication of this seminal work, 49 studies have used free- time as a consequence to change behavior. This review critically examines these 49 studies. The review shows that free-time has been used effectively with a variety of different behaviors and student populations, and with different methods of delivery. Based on a synthesis of information from the review, optimal methods for the use of free-time are suggested. Finally, it is concluded that additional research is needed, especially to answer the question of why free-time is effective.

Effect of sample-response requirement on matching-to-sample accuracy of exceptional children.

10 exceptional children ages 3 to 16 yr. matched-to-sample with either one response (single sample-response condition) or 5 or 10 responses (multiple sample-response condition) requited on the sample to produce the comparison stimuli. Accuracy increased going from the single to the multiple sample-response condition and decreased when the multiple sample-response requirement was changed to a single sample response. Acquisition of the task by two of the subjects was facilitated by the increased sample-response requirement.