J. Zimmerman

INTERMITTENT PUNISHMENT OF SΔ RESPONDING IN MATCHING TO SAMPLE1

Incorrect matching responses of two pigeons on matching to sample were either continuously (CRF) or intermittently (FR) followed by a time out (TO). The matching accuracy was examined as a function of both TO duration and TO frequency (ratio size). With intermediate TO durations (10 sec, 1 min), accuracy increased as the frequency of TO increased. With an extremely short (1 sec) and an extremely long (10 min) TO duration, accuracy was poor over the entire range of frequencies.

Sustaining Behavior with Conditioned Reinforcement as the Only Response-Produced Consequence:

Food was intermittently presented to pigeons on a response-independent basis. Concurrently, pecking at a key was intermittently reinforced with the presentation of stimuli which accompanied the food presentation, but not the food. Under these conditions, key-pecking was maintained indefinitely at moderate rates and control procedures demonstrated that the results could only be accounted for on the basis of conditioned reinforcement.

Why not give your client a counter: A survey of what happened when we did

Abstract A perusal of the recent literature of behavior modification shows an increasing emphasis on the use of self-recording as a research tool (see for example, Barlow et al., 1969; Duncan, 1969; McFall, 1970; Johnson and White, 1971 ; and Ackerman, 1972). In addition, self-recording is being more frequently utilized as a method of teaching students, clients and patients to (a) observe themselves more precisely, (b) assess the effects of treatments which they apply to themselves, with or without the guidance of a counsellor or therapist, and finally (c) provide the latter with objective information (see for example, Stuart. 1967; Lindsley, 1969; Kanfer, 1970; Duncan, 1971; Watson and Tharp, 1972; Mahoney and Thoresen, 1974; Thoresen and Mahoney, 1974; Zimmerman, 1975). Several researchers have suggested and provided evidence for the notion that self-recording of ones own behavior can be a reactive measure which leads to behavior change on the part of the recorder without the addition of further treatment (see for example, McFall, 1970; Johnson and White, 1971; McFall and Hammen, 1971; Kazdin, 1974; and Lipinski and Nelson, 1974). Preliminary results which each of the present authors have observed with some self-recording clients confirms the above observation. Furthermore, we have also observed that self-recording can sometimes lead to unexpected, therapeutic side-effects. For example, the junior author recently gave a golf counter to a 17-year-old female patient who reported having many impulses to “go back and check” things before leaving her home. These impulses were usually acted upon and one of the consequences of this was that the patient usually kept her parents waiting when the three had to go out. This patient was asked to wear a golf counter, which was given to her, to count the number of times each day that she had an “impulse to check”. In an interview with her following a 7-day counting period, she reported that she had not been aware that she had so many impulses (103 the first day of counting); she actually felt revulsion with herself upon clearly seeing how frequently she had these impulses; she had more impulses when nervous and fewer when relaxed; and finally, both the number of impulses and the actual number of times she acted upon them were markedly reduced over the 7-day counting period. This set of results, together with other (albeit less dramatic) results, suggested to us that some clients can benefit merely by self-recording their own behavior. For some the benefit may be greater awareness or knowledge of the self-recorded behavior, for some it could be actual behavior change, and for some both benefits might be achieved. To our knowledge, no study has been conducted which has surveyed such possible benefits of self-recording across a number of clients and under conditions in which many therapists are involved. The purpose of the present study was to explore the effects of self-recording, per se, across many clients who were being seen by many different therapists. We did so by recruiting therapists who would be interested in trying out the procedure of having one or more clients self-record.

Technique for Sustaining Behavior with Conditioned Reinforcement

Pigeons were intermittently reinforced with food for pecking at one key. Concurrent pecking at a second key intermittently produced conditioned reinforcers (the set of stimuli that accompanied food reinforcement, but not the food). Under these conditions, responding on the second key was maintained indefinitely. Rates and patterns of responding on the second key were a function of the schedule of conditioned reinforcement.

Applied analysis of human behavior: An alternative to conventional motivational inferences and unconscious determination in therapeutic programming

The management of disturbed human behavior by clinical techniques of psychiatric and psychological intervention has been traditionally tied to voncentional notions about the antecedents or “causes” of such behavior. In the traditional clinical approach, strong emphasis is laid on historically determined motivational factors. The author states the proposition that behavior can also be analyzed and, in fact, therapeutically manipulated through an analysis and rearrangement of its consequences in the here and now. This approach, which is the approach of the operant conditioning behavioral scientist, can be succesfully implemented without dependence on usual notions of motivation. Two clinical examples of the application of this behavioral approach are described, one of these involved in the progressive, noninsightful but stable control of eating behavior in moderately obese subjects, the second an example of the application of productive avoidance in generaling successful thesis-writing behavior in a doctoral candidate. The emphasis of this approach on events within the observable and verifiable present is particularly advantageous in an undergraduate educational and residency training situation.

Visual performance of a functionally blind person.

Abstract This report describes in detail the application of an operant-reinforcement procedure to the objective description and assessment of visual behavior in a functionally blind patient. The patients performance was examined over the course of five experiments which covered 132 daily experimental sessions. His behavior was shown to be controlled by visual stimuli and readily influenced by social suggestion and manipulation, and by changes in response-contingent consequences. The procedures and conditions employed by the present investigators were compared and contrasted with those employed earlier with the same patient by Brady and Lind.

Differential running in rats under an alternating (FR 2) schedule in an automated runway

Performance of rats in an automated runway was reinforced on an alternating (FR 2) schedule. The Ss ran consistently faster during reinforced trials than during nonreinforced trials. This result is in agreement with those previously obtained by others using manually-operated runways, and does not support the possibility of accounting for previous results on the basis of experimenter-introduced cues.

The "frustration effect" in operant studies: A necessary control procedure'

Reinforcements were randomly eliminated from one segment of a multiple chained schedule. The ensuing response facilitation was found to be no greater than the facilitation produced by chronic nonreinforcement, i.e., what is commonly observed as contrast effects. This finding differs from those found in discrete trial situations and suggests that caution should be exercised in using frustration theory to account for operant phenomena.

Differential effects of extinction on behaviors maintained by concurrent schedules of primary and conditioned reinforcement

Pigeons were intermittently reinforced with grain for pecking at one key. Concurrent pecking at a second key intermittently produced conditioned reinforcement (CR). Under these conditions, responding on the second key (a) was maintained indefinitely with CR, (b) was markedly weakened by removing CR, and (c) was independent of grain responding and relatively insensitive to grain manipulation.

An automated runway and Skinner box apparatus

An automated runway is described which permits animals to be run without handling between trials. The runway consists of three legs of a square with a Skinner box forming the base of the square. Results showing the stability of running performance on CRF are presented.