Peter C. Wolff

Apomorphine induced reinforcement

Under a 2 mg per kg intraperitoneal injection of apomorphine, four female Long Evans hooded rats were placed on continuous and fixed ratio reinforcement schedules using a gnawable pine block. Ss would learn to turn their heads away from the gnawable object in order to obtain 15 sec. of gnawing time. The rate of response increased from less than one response in 5 min. to over 3 responses per min. in 10 1½ hr. conditioning sessions. Rates of response stabilized during the last 5 experimental sessions and fixed ratio schedules of up to 5:1 were obtained in five additional 1½ hr. sessions.

The operant conditioning of fighting behavior in rats

Fighting behavior was conditioned in paired rats according to operant principles. Water reinforcement was made contingent upon those responses which successively approximated those typical of attack and fighting. Fighting eventually occurred which was characteristic of unconditioned aggression.

Vocal conditioning in the guinea pig

Two male guinea pigs were trained to vocalize for ICS reinforcement. Ss were differentially reinforced for calls in the 1000–2000 cps audio frequency range. When this vocal behavior was stabilized, reinforcement was made contingent on calls in the 2000–4000 cps range. Reinforcement of the 2000–4000 cps calls resulted in an increased proportion of calls in this range and a decreased proportion of calls in the 1000–2000 cps range. Sonograms of the calls under the two conditions showed the development of different sonic patterns.

The use of schedules of reinforcement to regulate a collective team response rate

To determine if the response rate of many individuals can be regulated collectively by the use of techniques similar to those used to condition one organism operantly, members of two and three-man units of normal adult males were individually instructed to produce as many light flashes as possible by pushing a button during 5 daily sessions of 3 hours each—the reinforcement being radio music. Ss were in separate rooms, but their responses were tallied collectively and they were programmed as teams under various DRL and DRH schedules. The lights (conditioned reinforcement) were intermittently paired with the radio music (primary reinforcement) on a variable ratio schedule.The collective rate response stabilized under the various DRL and DRH schedules. The DRL schedules systematically decreased the collective team response rate until usually only one member of the team was responding, while the DRH schedules increased the team response rate until at least two out of three members were responding at a rate higher than operant level. DRL response rates were much easier to shape than the DRH response rates. In general, team regulation conformed to the principles of reinforcement manifested in schedules of reinforcements used on individual subjects.

EFFECTS OF SCHEDULES OF COLLECTIVE REINFORCEMENT ON A CLASS DURING A TARGET DETECTION COURSE

Principles of behavior have recently been extended from the animal laboratory to the development of automated teaching. Extensions of these principles have so far been largely limited to training of the single individual. However, many training situacions make individual response analysis and individual reinforcement impractical. In many classrooms, teaching depends on analyzing the groups training progress collectively and applying reinforcement or feedback on the basis of the collective class response. Since so much of human behavior occurs in collective situacions, it would be of theoretical as well as practical interest to study the effects of conditioning techniques on collective groups. The situation to be discussed was a problem involving slide presentations of military type target detection problems. Previous research (Wolff, 1961; Wolff, et al., 1962) has demonstrated the usefulness of delayed point-out techniques and response boxes, requiring active participation in increasing the target detection ability of the soldier when training was administered on an individual basis. The present study was designed to investigate three problems: (1) the feasibility of extending the training conditions used in the studies on individual Ss, such as the usefulness of active participation and delayed point-out, to an enrire group collectively; (2) the relative effectiveness of graded and random sequences of target difficulty; and (3) the use of reinforcement in the form of collective verbal praise. The reinforcemenc schedules which were selected were designed to test the feasibility of presenting collective reinforcemenc to a group simultaneously where some members would be reinforced for not responding and other members would be reinforced for responding inappropriately some part of the time. This procedure contrasts with the usual reinforcement procedure which reinforces only on the basis of correct responses. Pmticipation Vmiables Investigated A classroom presentation of pictorial material which consisted of military type problems was utilized to teach target detection to trainees. A delayed point-out procedure was used to designate the targets and a response box procedure was developed for administration to members of a group simultaneously. Presentation of the Target Matwial

The effects of bar-holding training and rapid ratio shaping on fixed-ratio escape responding

Three guinea pigs and three rats were trained to escape scrambled electric foot shock on fixed ratio schedules. One pair was trained by a standard procedure, one pair was given bar holding training during the 30 sec time out from shock period and one pair was given bar holding training plus rapid increases in the fixed ratio requirements within a session. The bar holding training increased FR schedules from FR30 to FR45; the additional rapid training procedure increased FR schedules to over 200: 1.