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Abstract
Learning to stop responding is an important process that allows behavior to adapt to a changing and variable environment. This article reviews recent research in this laboratory and others that has studied how animals learn to stop responding in operant extinction, punishment, and feature-negative learning. Extinction and punishment are shown to be similar in two fundamental ways. First, the response-suppressing effects of both are highly context-specific. Second, the response-suppressing effects of both can be remarkably response-specific: Inhibition of one response transfers little to other responses. Learning to inhibit the response so specifically may result from the correction of "response error," the difference between the level of responding and what the current reinforcer supports. In contrast, the inhibition of responding that develops in feature-negative learning, where the response is reinforced during one discriminative stimulus (A) but not in a compound of A and stimulus B, is less response-specific: The inhibition of responding by stimulus B transfers and inhibits a second response, especially if the second response has itself been inhibited before. The results thus indicate both response-specific and response-general forms of behavioral inhibition. One possibility is that response-specific inhibition is learned when the circumstances encourage the organism to pay attention to the response-to what it is actually doing-as behavioral suppression is learned.
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McSweeney FK, Ettinger RH, Norman WD. Three versions of the additive theories of behavioral contrast. J Exp Anal Behav 2010; 36:285-97. [PMID: 16812247 PMCID: PMC1333075 DOI: 10.1901/jeab.1981.36-285] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
The additive theories of behavioral contrast state that contrast will occur only when two types of responses interact during multiple schedules. Three more specific versions of the theories may be defined according to how they distinguish these two types of responses. A strong version physically distinguishes them. A second version distinguishes them according to the theoretical processes which control them. A weak version distinguishes them on the basis of the environmental relations which control them. Only the weak version of the theories is currently testable. The weak theory should be tested by establishing each of the two environmental relations independently and then combining them to assess their effect on behavior. Because this test is not usually performed, many of the results which have been taken to support or contradict the additive theories are actually ambiguous.
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Dougan JD, McSweeney FK, Farmer VA. Some parameters of behavioral contrast and allocation of interim behavior in rats. J Exp Anal Behav 2010; 44:325-35. [PMID: 16812435 PMCID: PMC1348195 DOI: 10.1901/jeab.1985.44-325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Two experiments examined the effects of baseline reinforcement rate and component duration on behavioral contrast and on re-allocation of interim behavior in rats. Positive behavioral contrast occurred during multiple variable-interval 10-second extinction (VI 10 EXT) after a multiple VI 10 VI 10 baseline condition, but not during multiple VI 60 EXT following multiple VI 60 VI 60 baseline. Component duration had no significant effect on contrast. These results differed from those found in studies of pigeons' key pecking. Contrast was accompanied by an increased rate of drinking in the changed component, but drinking in the constant component did not decrease. These results are not consistent with the competition theory of contrast, but are consistent with the predictions based on the matching law. However, no current theory seems to account for all instances of behavioral contrast.
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Abstract
Recent research on multiple schedule interactions is reviewed. Contrary to formulations that view contrast as the result of elicited behavior controlled by the stimulus-reinforcer contingency (e.g., additivity theory), the major controlling variable is the relative rate of reinforcement, which cannot be reduced to some combination of stimulus-reinforcer and response-reinforcer effects. Other recent theoretical formulations are also reviewed and all are found to face serious counterevidence. The best description of the available data continues to be in terms of the "context of reinforcement," but Herrnstein's (1970) formulation of the basis of such context effects appears to be inadequate. An alternative conception is provided by Catania's concept of "inhibition by reinforcement," by which rate of responding is inversely related to the average rate of reinforcement in the situation. Such a conception is related to Gibbon's recent scalar-expectancy account of autoshaping and Fantino's delay-reduction model of conditioned reinforcement, suggesting that a common set of principles determines several diverse conditioning phenomena. However, the empirical status of such a description remains uncertain, because recent evidence shows that schedule interactions are temporally asymmetric, depending primarily upon the conditions of reinforcement that follow a schedule component.
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Lombas AS, Kearns DN, Weiss SJ. DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF A FOOD-BASED CONDITIONED INHIBITOR ON FOOD- OR COCAINE-SEEKING BEHAVIOR. LEARNING AND MOTIVATION 2008; 39:323-333. [PMID: 19885370 DOI: 10.1016/j.lmot.2008.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
The present experiment compared the effects of a food-based conditioned inhibitor on food seeking vs. cocaine seeking behavior. In two groups of rats, the A+/AB- Pavlovian conditioned inhibition procedure was used to create a conditioned inhibitor for food. Then, for one group of rats (Food-Food Group), a click stimulus was established as an operant discriminative stimulus (S(D)) for food-reinforced lever pressing. In the other group (Food-Cocaine Group), the click was established as an S(D) for cocaine self-administration. In testing, the putative inhibitor for food was simultaneously presented with the click for the first time in both groups. In the Food-Food Group, the food-based inhibitor suppressed responding occasioned by the click significantly more than did a neutral control stimulus. In contrast, in the Food-Cocaine Group, there was no difference in the amount of suppression produced by the food-based inhibitor and the control stimulus. These results suggest that the effects of food-based Pavlovian conditioned inhibitors are specific for food-motivated behavior and do not easily transfer to cocaine-motivated behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrés S Lombas
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad del País Vasco, Avenida de Tolosa, 70, 20018 San Sebastián, Spain
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Colwill RM. Associative Representations of Instrumental Contingencies. ADVANCES IN RESEARCH AND THEORY 1994. [DOI: 10.1016/s0079-7421(08)60408-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
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Holland PC. Acquisition and transfer of occasion setting in operant feature positive and feature negative discriminations. LEARNING AND MOTIVATION 1991. [DOI: 10.1016/0023-9690(91)90002-p] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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The law of obligation is insufficient. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058532] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Language, evolution, and learning. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Exorcizing Watson's ghost. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Chimp communication without conditioning. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x0005843x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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The neglected developmental dimension of “obligatory” behavior. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058349] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
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Contiguity, contingency, and causation. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x0005826x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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The yoked control design is not the only test for reinforcement. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058337] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Well-fed organisms still need feedback. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058568] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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On the process of reinforcement. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058507] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Misrepresenting the law of effect and ethology as its alternative. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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Behavior change without a theory of learning? Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058519] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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28
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Guthrie revisited: For better and worse. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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Contingency: Effects of symmetry of choice responses. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x0005857x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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Arbitrary effect of consequences yet indispensable? Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058477] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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31
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Learning as a constraint on obligatory responding. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Constraints on learning or laws of performance? Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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33
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The ethology of purpose. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Truth about consequences. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058362] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Feeding, forward and backward: Mostly red herrings. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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36
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Feedforward and (not versus) feedbackward. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058556] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
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Learning, reward, and cognitive differences. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058283] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Why contingencies won't go away. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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39
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The law of effect: Contingency or contiguity. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058520] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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Truth or consequences. Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x0005860x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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44
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Where are the limits to operant psycholgy? Behav Brain Sci 1988. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00058453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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de Rose JC. Behavioral contrast in fixed-interval components: effects of extinction-component duration. J Exp Anal Behav 1986; 45:175-88. [PMID: 3958663 PMCID: PMC1348226 DOI: 10.1901/jeab.1986.45-175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Seven albino rats were exposed to a multiple schedule of reinforcement in which the two components (fixed interval and extinction) alternated such that a presentation of the extinction component followed each fixed-interval reinforcement. In baseline sessions, the duration of the extinction component was constant and always one-third of the fixed-interval value. Probe sessions contained a probe segment in which the duration of the extinction component was increased; the response rate in fixed-interval components during the probe segment was compared with the response rate in the segments preceding and following the probe. The effect of increasing the duration of the extinction component was studied under three values of fixed interval: 30 s, 120 s, and 18 s, in three successive conditions. Response rate within fixed intervals was a direct function of duration of the extinction component. Pausing at the beginning of the fixed interval decreased as extinction duration increased. These effects were larger and more consistent for the shorter fixed-interval values (18 s and 30 s). These results indicate a functional relation between relative component duration and responding. For the component providing more frequent reinforcement, this could be stated as an inverse relationship between relative component duration and response rate. This relation is similar to findings regarding the ratio of trial and intertrial duration in Pavlovian conditioning procedures, and suggests that behavioral contrast may be related to Pavlovian contingencies underlying the multiple schedule.
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