Roger D. Ray

A Systems Approach to Behavior

This paper is an empirical exploration of a new approach to understanding how organisms develop selective and organized behavioral interactions with differing environments. By investigating mutually dependent “interbehavioral” transactions between individuals and environments, need exists for reformulating “reinforcement,” “learning,” and “motivation” conceptions and replacing them with parametric specifications of particular organismic, spatial, temporal, and historical variable configurations. Only such a “systems” analysis will suffice for future theoretical progress.

The behavioral specificity of stimulation: A systems approach to procedural distinctions of classical and instrumental conditioning

This paper presents a new methodological approach to classical Pavlovian investigations. Using a yoked group for stimulus pairing trial pacing, behavioral occurrence frequencies, sequential behavior patterns, and behavioral change dynamics are analyzed for rats in both a non-discriminative and a general setting discrimination paradigm. Theoretical issues addressed by a variety of new dependent measures are discussed, and a special emphasis is placed on comparing instrumental and classical procedures as viewed from the behavioral perspective of the subject.

Teaching College Level Content and Reading Comprehension Skills Simultaneously via an Artificially Intelligent Adaptive Computerized Instructional System.

This paper presents a behavioral model for conceptualizing advanced reading comprehension as a “higher order” behavior class. Also discussed are strategies and tactics utilized by an artificially intelligent adaptive tutoring and testing software system designed to shape such comprehension skills while also teaching subject-specific “content” to college students. The system, called MediaMatrix, offers internet delivery of relatively traditional textbook content using highly individualized and adaptive tutorial and assessment procedures (Ray, 1995a; 1995b, 2004). Extant and new research on the effectiveness of this system is presented, with particular emphasis on a preliminary study of students in two small sections of an introductory psychology course. Students were evaluated during early (pre) and late (post) portions of the semester using two equivalent forms of a specially constructed SAT/GRE type reading comprehension test. A statistically significant 17% gain from pre-to-post reading comprehension scores was observed, suggesting that both the behavioral model and the MediaMatrix strategies and tactics for shaping such higher order behaviors merit further research. Practical implications of teaching both specific course content and higher order behaviors such as reading comprehension without direct teacher contact are especially noted.

Use of the conditional reflex to assess the temporal characteristics of curarization effects on heart rate responding

A Pavlovian methodological counterpart to the use of druginduced changes in operant rates of responding was used to assess the temporal characteristics of d-tubocurarine chloride effects on the heart rate conditional reflex in rats. After a stable conditional reflex had been established, the base heart rate, as well as the unconditional and conditional reflex, was monitored during administration of the drug. A sizable behavioral effect was reflected in all three measures, including a temporary abolition of the conditional and unconditional reflexes. An interpretation of these results was discussed, and further development and application of this specific methodology was explored.

Psychology Experiments as Interbeha Vioral Systems: A Case Study from the Soviet Union

This paper reviews a research project conducted at Pavlov’s laboratory at the Institute of Experimental Medicine in Leningrad, U.S.S.R. The paper’s primary objective is to present a formal, quantified account of both experimenter and subject behavior as they interact during a dynamic learning experiment. The analysis focuses on a prominent Soviet paradigm, the Kupalov “situational-place reflex,” which combines elements of classical Pavlovian stimulus pairings (experimenter-paced stimuli) with subject-paced arrangements that involve a variety of behavioral prerequisites. Discussions and conclusions focus on (a) the operational aspects of the Kupalov paradigm and their implications for current learning typologies, (b) cultural differences in viewing experiments, and (c) the strengths of the Soviet experimenters’ sensitivity to individual differences.

A Systems Approach to Behavior III: Organismic Pace and Complexity in Time-Space Fields

This paper is the third in a series covering a systems approach to en-vironmental-organismic interactions. Two experiments are presented which explore behavioral organization dynamics in temporally defined settings. The first study investigates relations between the change rate of imposed environmental settings and consequent changes in behavioral flow dynamics in laboratory rats. The second investigation focuses on biological rhythms in behavioral-respiratory dynamics of killer whales in oceanaria. By analyzing behavioral organization at both structural (micro) and functional (macro) levels, sequentially organized and recurrent behavior patterns were found to occur in temporally and spatially defined settings. Conclusions focus on the implications of reported data relative to: (a) requirements that adequate behavioral measurement include frequency, duration, and patterned integration; (b) systemics of psychological-physiological (organismic) integration; and (c) potential definitions of functional psychological time boundaries.

A Systems Approach to Behavior II: The Ecological Description and Analysis of Human Behavior Dynamics

This article explores the conceptual relations existing among experimental animal psychology, field ethology, and human clinical behavior modification, in order to generate a new methodology for descriptive analyses in ecological settings. Drawing upon a “systems” conception of learning and behavior maintenance, descriptive accounts of both behavior and behavioral control dynamics in the environment are emphasized by the model. Specific research conducted to illustrate and validate the approach is discussed. Research on all of the major parameters is presented, including cross-cultural and cultural change applications, in an effort to illustrate the method’s format and utility for analyzing human behavior in a variety of naturalistic settings.

A BEHAVIORAL SYSTEMS APPROACH TO ADAPTIVE COMPUTERIZED INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

A computerized multimedia instructional system has been developed that adheres to behavioral systems principles for presenting both adaptive programmed instructional materials and laboratory simulations. This instructional software system, called MediaMatrix, is both an authoring environment and a presentation vehicle that adapts the complexity of presentations in real time to changes in a student’s current rate of progress. It incorporates an automated knowledge-generation system that tracks all interactions between the user and any instructional objects within the system. Such knowledge is used both for a research database and for an artificial-intelligence engine that constructs an estimate ofconcept association networks (Verplanck, 1992a). Such networks reflect a learner’s developing knowledge and skill base, and may be used for tutorial advising during student use.

MediaMatrix: An authoring system for adaptive hypermedia teaching — Learning resource libraries

A NEW adaptive computerized instruction authoring system, calledMediaMatrix, requires that content developers adhere to a wide variety of learning principles as they aspire to accomplish outcome learning goals which include not only the acquisition of specific content, but also the development of general comprehension and problem solving skills. This authoring system was designed for development of final products which include those referred to as Hypermedia Teaching-Learning Resource Libraries. These libraries are conceived as being not only a replacement for such traditional teaching resources as transparencies, notes, videos, laboratory exercises, and tests; they also are envisioned as replacing such student resources as the traditional textbook, study guides, and human tutors. By incorporating several artificial intelligence engines and knowledge generation systems,MediaMatrix enables developers to build adaptive programmed instruction and adaptive testing systems with comparative ease. This authoring environment allows developers to focus simultaneously on the systematic improvement of comprehension and problem solving skills while also providing for adaptive content presentations that change delivery rates to accommodate varying rates of learning. As students learn new material, the system not only learns what they know, but also the rate at which they are learning it. It then adapts instructional content delivery and testing to best meet the need of learners.

An Interbehavioral Systems Model for Empirical Investigation in Psychology

This paper discusses an emprically based model for understanding human and other organismic experiences. The model is based primarily upon the writings of interbehavioral psychology (J. R. Kantor), but also draws heavily from modern phenomenology (M. Merleau-Ponty), and general systems theory (Bowler). A series of experiments are discussed which exemplify the various data-based points that must be investigated in order to articulate fully the analog nature of human experience as these theorists envisioned it. It departs from the philosophical character of these authors and strikes a decidedly empirical stance to demonstrate better how their work can take on a practical meaning not normally attributed to it. The methodological model is referred to as an Interbehavioral Systems Model, and it encompasses Global Macro Events as well as Micro Events existing at the level of nervous activity. The model discusses the interdependent nature of these processes and explicates the theoretical position that such events and processes must, by necessity, be investigated concurrently. We discuss the relationship of human experience and organismic events in relation to other species. We will stress the necessity of making biological and physiological interpretations only in the context of the experiencing organism.