Study 1 evaluated the use of a behavioral skills training package (BST) to teach three adults with autism spectrum disorders job interview and conversation skills. Participants were asked to have a mock job interview and conversation with the researcher. Participants' behavior was scored according to the conversation and job interview task analyses. The BST package included instruction, modeling, rehearsal, feedback, and reinforcement. A dense or lean schedule of reinforcement was assigned to each social skill based on performance during baseline. Social skills increased for all three participants when the BST package was implemented. Study 2 evaluated if dense or lean schedules of reinforcement affect maintenance of social skills. Two participants from Study 1 participated. Participants' BST data from Study 1 was used as baseline, followed by a maintenance phase. During this phase no instruction, modeling, rehearsal, feedback, or reinforcement was provided. The effect of rate of reinforcement during baseline on maintenance was evaluated.

Resistance to extinction of single-schedule performance is negatively related to the reinforcer rate that an organism experienced in the pre-extinction context. This finding opposes the predications of behavioral momentum theory, which states that resistance to change, in general, is positively related to reinforcer rates. The quantitative model of extinction provided by behavioral momentum theory can describe resistance to extinction following single schedules in a post-hoc fashion, and only if the parameters of the model are allowed to vary considerably from those typically derived from multiple- schedule preparations. An application of the principles of Bayesian inference offers an alternative account of extinction performance following single schedules. According to the Bayesian change-detection algorithm, the temporal intervals of non-reinforcement that an organism experiences during extinction are compared to the temporal distribution of reinforcers that the organism experienced during baseline. A transition to extinction is more readily detectable when the previously collected distribution of reinforcers in timeis populated with relatively short intervals (i.e., when more frequent reinforcement was experienced during baseline). The Bayesian change-detection algorithm also suggests that changes in reinforcer rates are more detectable when organisms have temporally proximal experience with frequently changing rates. The current experiment investigated this novel prediction. Pigeons pecked keys for food under schedules of reinforcement that arranged either relatively dynamic reinforcer rates or relatively static rates across conditions. Following each period of reinforcement, resistance to extinction was assessed. Persistence was greater following static contingencies than following dynamic contingencies for the majority of subjects. These data provide support for the Bayesian approach to understanding operant extinction and might serve to extend behavioral momentum theory by offering change detection as an additional mechanism through which extinction occurs.

The current study explored how the variability or lack thereof in interlocking behavioral contingencies (IBC) may be brought under contextual control. Four undergraduates (two dyads) students participated in the current study. Dyads were instructed to play a game on a computer screen with the goal to earn as many "Congratulations" as possible. An ABABAB reversal design was used. A Lag 1 schedule of cultural consequence delivery for IBC topography was set in the variability (VAR) condition. During the repeated (REP) condition only one IBC topography was reinforced. For one of the two dyads, the variability of IBC topography was brought under contextual control. It is important to explore the behavioral processes at the cultural level to understand prediction and control of cultural phenomena.

Sometimes, changes in consequences are accompanied by a clear stimulus change explicitly arranged by the experimenter. Other times when new consequences are in effect, there is little or no accompanying stimulus change explicitly arranged by the experimenter. These differences can be seen in the laboratory as multiple (signaled) schedules and mixed (unsignaled) schedules. The current study used college students and a single-subject design to examine the effects of introducing signaled and unsignaled schedules, and the transitions between them. In one phase, a card was flipped from purple to white every time the schedule was switched from VR-3 to FT-10. In another phase, the schedule still changed periodically, but the card always remained on the purple side. Results showed that the participants' responding was controlled by the schedule of reinforcement, by the color of the card, or both. These results suggest that changes in patterns of reinforcement lead to changes in stimulus control. In addition, the stimulus control for a behavior can come from several different sources. During teaching, it may facilitate the development of stimulus control to change the environment when a new behavior is required.

Responder mantido por relação acidental com reforço, comportamento supersticioso, pode ser facilitado por variáveis sociais como a modelação. O presente estudo investigou o comportamento supersticioso em um procedimento com ou sem substituição de participantes. No procedimento com substituição, um participante trabalhava em uma tarefa no computador enquanto outro o observava. Quando terminava a tarefa, o participante observador passava a realizar a tarefa e outro participante era chamado para observá-lo. A tarefa básica envolveu a programação de um esquema múltiplo com componentes de VT e EXT. Os participantes podiam emitir respostas, por meio da manipulação de um mouse, em um retângulo colorido apresentado na tela do computador. Dois grupos de oito participantes foram constituídos para avaliar a transmissão do padrão desenvolvido em VT EXT, designados Cultura A e Cultura B. Cada uma dessas duas culturas começava com um experimentador confederado, que respondia no componente VT e não respondia no componente EXT. As cores do retângulo que sinalizavam os componentes VT e EXT eram alteradas a cada troca de participante, de modo a favorecer o responder em ambas as contingências a cada vez que o novo participante era colocado na tarefa. Em um Grupo de Exposição Individual, cada participante foi exposto a três sessões experimentais seguidas, sem acesso a modelo. Ao final de cada sessão, os participantes eram solicitados a estimar o controle que tinham sobre a tarefa. Resultados mostraram que houve mais respostas em VT e em EXT para os participantes com o procedimento com troca de participantes do que para os do Grupo de Exposição Individual, indicando o efeito do comportamento do outro sobre o desempenho em esquema múltiplo. Participantes responderam tanto em EXT quanto em VT, mostrando que o desempenho não estava sendo mantido pela relação acidental com reforço, mas sim pela história prévia de observação do comportamento do modelo. Não houve qualquer tipo de correlação entre o desempenho não verbal e estimativa de controle / Superstitious behavior as response maintained by accidental relation with reinforcement can be facilitated by social variables such as modelling. Present study examined superstitious behavior in a procedure involving participants replacement or not. In replacement procedure one of the participants worked on a task on the computer while the other watched. When finished the task, the participant who was observing passed to perform the task and another participant was asked to observe. Programmed task involved basically a multiple schedule with VT and EXT components. Participants could emit responses by mouse clicking in a colored rectangle presented on computer screen. Two groups of eight subjects called \"Culture A\" and \"Culture B\" were made to evaluate developed EXT VT transmission. Each of these two cultures began with an experimenter confederate, who answered VT component but not EXT component. Rectangles color signaled VT and EXT components were changed when participant changed in order to favor responding in both contingencies with each new participant. In Individual Exhibition Group, each participant was exposed to three consecutive experimental sessions with no access. At the end of each session, participants were asked to estimate the control they had over the task. Results showed there were more responses in VT and EXT on replacing participants procedure than Individual Exhibition Group, indicating other\'s behavior effect on multiple schedule performance. Participants answered both EXT and in VT, showing that the performance was not being maintained by the accidental relation with reinforcement, but the history of observing models behavior. There was no correlation between nonverbal performance and estimation control

Responder mantido por relação acidental com reforço, comportamento supersticioso, pode ser facilitado por variáveis sociais como a modelação. O presente estudo investigou o comportamento supersticioso em um procedimento com ou sem substituição de participantes. No procedimento com substituição, um participante trabalhava em uma tarefa no computador enquanto outro o observava. Quando terminava a tarefa, o participante observador passava a realizar a tarefa e outro participante era chamado para observá-lo. A tarefa básica envolveu a programação de um esquema múltiplo com componentes de VT e EXT. Os participantes podiam emitir respostas, por meio da manipulação de um mouse, em um retângulo colorido apresentado na tela do computador. Dois grupos de oito participantes foram constituídos para avaliar a transmissão do padrão desenvolvido em VT EXT, designados Cultura A e Cultura B. Cada uma dessas duas culturas começava com um experimentador confederado, que respondia no componente VT e não respondia no componente EXT. As cores do retângulo que sinalizavam os componentes VT e EXT eram alteradas a cada troca de participante, de modo a favorecer o responder em ambas as contingências a cada vez que o novo participante era colocado na tarefa. Em um Grupo de Exposição Individual, cada participante foi exposto a três sessões experimentais seguidas, sem acesso a modelo. Ao final de cada sessão, os participantes eram solicitados a estimar o controle que tinham sobre a tarefa. Resultados mostraram que houve mais respostas em VT e em EXT para os participantes com o procedimento com troca de participantes do que para os do Grupo de Exposição Individual, indicando o efeito do comportamento do outro sobre o desempenho em esquema múltiplo. Participantes responderam tanto em EXT quanto em VT, mostrando que o desempenho não estava sendo mantido pela relação acidental com reforço, mas sim pela história prévia de observação do comportamento do modelo. Não houve qualquer tipo de correlação entre o desempenho não verbal e estimativa de controle / Superstitious behavior as response maintained by accidental relation with reinforcement can be facilitated by social variables such as modelling. Present study examined superstitious behavior in a procedure involving participants replacement or not. In replacement procedure one of the participants worked on a task on the computer while the other watched. When finished the task, the participant who was observing passed to perform the task and another participant was asked to observe. Programmed task involved basically a multiple schedule with VT and EXT components. Participants could emit responses by mouse clicking in a colored rectangle presented on computer screen. Two groups of eight subjects called \"Culture A\" and \"Culture B\" were made to evaluate developed EXT VT transmission. Each of these two cultures began with an experimenter confederate, who answered VT component but not EXT component. Rectangles color signaled VT and EXT components were changed when participant changed in order to favor responding in both contingencies with each new participant. In Individual Exhibition Group, each participant was exposed to three consecutive experimental sessions with no access. At the end of each session, participants were asked to estimate the control they had over the task. Results showed there were more responses in VT and EXT on replacing participants procedure than Individual Exhibition Group, indicating other\'s behavior effect on multiple schedule performance. Participants answered both EXT and in VT, showing that the performance was not being maintained by the accidental relation with reinforcement, but the history of observing models behavior. There was no correlation between nonverbal performance and estimation control

Pigeons were trained on a zero-delay identity match-to-sample task. Experiment 1 started with every correct match reinforced with grain access and subsequent conditions include higher fixed-ratio values. Experiment 2 included the same fixed-ratio values as experiment 1 with and without a limited hold (LH) on the opportunity to select a comparison stimulus. Prior research suggested that trials after reinforcement would have an increased likelihood of error, and that these errors would be reduced in LH conditions. Results confirmed this expected error pattern and in most LH conditions errors were reduced early in the ratio.

The present study investigated the effects of a concurrent schedules arrangement, in which three dimensions of reinforcement (duration, attention, and stimuli) were manipulated, on choice responding, appropriate behavior, and problem behavior for three participants with disabilities who had escape-maintained problem behavior. Three experiments were conducted in which participants could choose between work, break, or problem behavior. In the first experiment, the choice analysis, three reinforcement dimensions were varied simultaneously for choice responses. In the second experiment, the component choice analysis, reinforcement dimensions were evaluated in isolation. In the third experiment, the effort analysis, increasing task demand requirements and how they affected response allocation were investigated. Results of the first experiment were consistent across all participants, and suggested that participants allocated their choices in favor of reinforcement contingencies that resulted in breaks with the longest duration, high preference stimuli, and high quality attention. Results of the second and third experiments, however, were idiosyncratic across participants. Component choice analysis results suggested that only specific reinforcement dimensions maintained responding for some participants, whereas all reinforcement dimensions maintained response allocation for others. Results of the third experiment suggested that as task demands increased, reinforcement contingencies that previously maintained responding in the second experiment did not always continue to maintain responding for all participants. This study contributes to and extends the literature on choice making in several ways. The majority of previously published investigations evaluated different dimensions of reinforcement when only two response options were concurrently available, and many of these studies only examined one or two reinforcement dimensions. The present study used a concurrent schedules arrangement in which three concurrently available response options existed. Like previous research the present study suggests that quality of reinforcement can be manipulated to effectively bias individuals' responding in favor of adaptive responses, and the quality variables that impact choice responding may or may not be related to the function of problem behavior. However, further research is needed to understand how choice responding is impacted by increasing demand requirements, as this study demonstrated that choice responding was idiosyncratically affected by changing task demands.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may mand repetitively for preferred items using the same mand topography, unless the environment is arranged to promote mand variability. For example, an individual with ASD may request access to songs played on the radio by repeating the word “dance” only. Previous research suggests that lag schedules of reinforcement can increase variability of vocal mands displayed by individuals with ASD. The current study evaluated the effects of a lag schedule of reinforcement and progressive time delay (TD) on the vocal mands by a 27-year old male, 28-year old female, and a 26-year old female. The evaluation included a multiple baseline across behaviors with embedded reversal design. A mand topography invariance assessment (MTIA) was conducted with each participant to identify new and existing vocal mand topographies. Two conditions were used to assess variable responding when variability was (Lag 1 + TD) and was not (Lag 0) required to produce reinforcement. During Lag 0, reinforcement was contingent on instances of independent manding (of any topography). During Lag 1 +TD, reinforcement was contingent on instances of independent variant and prompted variant responses (i.e., a mand topography had to be different from the mand topography that occurred independently in the preceding trial). A progressive TD was used to transfer stimulus control from an echoic prompt to naturally occurring contingencies. Results indicated that a Lag 1 schedule of reinforcement with progressive TD resulted in acquisition of novel vocal mand topographies for all participants, with varying effects on rates of independent variant mands. / Applied Behavioral Analysis

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:18:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Historia comportamental.pdf: 643607 bytes, checksum: dfefb7548abf50fc010b5b6dda4bc6ac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-04-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The field of Behavioral History has the purpose of studying the influences of the histories to which the subject was exposed on subsequent performances. This study aimed to discuss the following issues: a) the transitory performance under the exposure to different schedules of reinforcement; b) if this transitory performance depends on the schedule; c) if different types of experimental designs (Group vs. Within Subject) and data analyses (Groups of Sessions vs. Session to Session) indicate different interpretations of the phenomenon; d) the effects of the presentation of an disruptive variable ; and e) if experimental histories have any control over the subsequent responding. Eight male Wistar rats, kept at a proximally 85% of their free feeding weights, were divided into four groups, which underwent different experimental histories. The groups were submitted to DRL and FR histories, the differences being on the order of the schedule presentation, on the DRL value, and on the presentation of sound or no sound, except to Group 4, which did not have a FR history. The results found were: a) the reacquisition of responding under a specific schedule was faster than its acquisition; b) the presentation and withdrawal of the sound did not produce differences on responding; c) the rates of responding under a second exposure to a FR returned to the same pattern previous to the DRL history, except to subject 64; d) when compared to previous rates, a small increase in the rates of responding under a DRL schedule after a FR history was observed; and e) observing the same results in groups of sessions vs. session to session and group averages vs. individual values, different results were found concerning the presentation and withdrawal of the sound, as the results for groups of sessions and group averages suggested that presenting and withdrawing the sound produced changes in responding, but the individual results and the session to session results show that the sound did not have such effect on responding. These results suggest that: a) the different types of history produce different effects over subsequent responding, what reinforces the need of knowing the history to which the subject was exposed in order to predict and control behavior; b) the reacquisition of a responding pattern being faster than its acquisition indicates that the effects of history are not transitory; c) to state that a given effect of history is transitory or not, it is necessary to observe variables like: the type of schedule of reinforcement (current and to which the subject was previously exposed) and the experimental design; d) different experimental designs and data analysis can lead to different interpretations of a phenomenon; e) the presentation of a stimulus (a supposing disruptive variable ) seems not to alter the subjects behavior / A área de História Comportamental tem como objetivo estudar as influências de histórias às quais o sujeito foi exposto sobre desempenhos posteriores. Este estudo pretendeu discutir os seguintes assuntos: a) a transitoriedade de desempenho frente a exposição a diferentes esquemas; b) se essa transitoriedade depende do tipo de esquema; c) tipos diferentes de delineamento (Grupo X sujeito único) e apresentação de resultados (blocos de sessões X sessão a sessão) indicam interpretações diferentes do fenômeno; d) efeitos da introdução de uma variável interferente ; e, e) se histórias experimentais exercem algum controle posterior sobre o responder. Para tal 8 ratos machos da raça Wistar mantidos a aproximadamente 85% de seus respectivos pesos ad. lib. foram distribuidos em quatro grupos que foram submetidos a diferentes histórias experimentais. Os grupos foram submetidos a histórias de DRL e FR, tendo variação na ordem da apresentação dos esquemas, no valor do DRL e na inserção ou não de som, com exceção do Grupo 4 que não teve história de FR. Os resultados encontrados foram: a) a re-aquisição do responder frente a um determinado esquema ocorreu mais rapidamente que sua aquisição; b) a inserção e retirada do som não produziu alterações no responder; c) as taxas de respostas sob uma segunda exposição a FR voltaram aos patamares observados antes da história sob esquema DRL, com exceção do sujeito 64; d) verificou-se um pequeno aumento nas taxas de respostas na exposição ao esquema DRL após história de FR se comparadas às taxas anteriores; e e) ao se observar os mesmos resultados em blocos de sessões X sessão a sessão e médias de Grupo X valores individuais, tem-se resultados diferentes, ao que se refere a introdução e retirada do som, os resultados por blocos de sessões e médias de grupo sugere que a inserção ou retirada do som alterou o responder, entretanto, ao se observar os resultados sessão a sessão e individualizadamente verificou-se que o som não produziu tais efeitos. Os resultados apontam que: a) os diferentes tipos de história produziram diferentes efeitos sobre o responder posterior, o que reforça a necessidade de se conhecer a história à qual o sujeito foi exposto como fator importante na predição e controle de seu comportamento; b) a re-aquisição de um responder sendo mais rapidamente observada do que sua aquisição indica que os efeitos da história não são transitórios; c) para considerar se um efeito da história é transitório ou não deve-se observar diferentes variáveis tais como: o tipo de esquema de reforçamento (em vigor e aquele ao qual o sujeito foi exposto anteriormente) e o delineamento usado; d) diferentes delineamento e apresentação de resultados podem levar a interpretações diferentes de um fenômeno; e) a introdução de um estímulo (suposta variável interferente ) parece não produzir alterações no responder dos sujeitos