Pigeons were trained in three experiments with a two-key, concurrent-chains choice procedure. The initial links were equal variable-interval schedules, and the terminal links were random-time schedules with equal average interreinforcement intervals. Across the three experiments, the pigeons either stayed in a terminal link until a reinforcer was…

The goal of the present study was to explore the emergence of verbal behavior resulting from the joint control of two antecedent stimuli that are presented together for the first time. Conditional discriminations were used for teaching and for probing. Four stimuli PI, P2, 0 1 , and 02 were samples and four stimuli Al, A2, BI, and B2 were the…

Undergraduates given accurate instructions pressed keys for token points under either a variety of reinforcement schedules (variety training) or under a single schedule. Response rates on a fixed-interval (FI) test schedule then were assessed. Experiment 1 compared variety training inclusive of FI-optimal rates (functional) to training excluding…

One group of undergraduates responded under a fixed-ratio (FR) 25 schedule and a second group responded under a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) 5-s schedule (first history phase). Both groups of subjects were then exposed to a differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior (DRO) 5-s schedule (second history phase), and finally to…

Participants were exposed to 3 conditions in a between-groups design. Participants were told the experiment was about extrasensory perception and were asked to select the word from a pair of words that they thought the experimenter was thinking about. In 1 condition selections of the word with a double letter were reinforced with positive verbal…

To date, only 1 study has evaluated the impact of a Pavlovian drug conditional stimulus (CS) on operant responding. A within-subject operant 1-lever go/no-go (across sessions) design was used to evaluate the impact of Pavlovian contingencies on the discriminative stimulus effects of nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) and ethanol (800 mg/kg) in male Sprague…

Perspective-taking, or the ability to demonstrate awareness of informational states in oneself and in others, has been of recent interest in behavioral psychology. This is, in part, a result of a modern behavioral approach to human language and cognition known as Relational Frame Theory, which views perspective-taking as generalized operant…

Resurgence may be defined generally as the extinction-induced recurrence of previously learned response patterns. Understanding the conditions under which this phenomenon occurs has theoretical, clinical, and applied implications, particularly with respect to a related area of research on response-class hierarchies. In the current study, we…

This study is a comparison of 2 versions of an Internet-based tutorial that teaches the behavior-analysis concept of positive reinforcement. A fixed-item group of students studied a version of the tutorial that included 14 interactive examples and nonexamples of the concept. A response-sensitive group of students studied a different version of the…

The purpose of the current experiment was to investigate the role of private verbal behavior on the operant performances of human adults, using a protocol analysis procedure with additional methodological controls (the "silent dog" method). Twelve subjects were exposed to fixed ratio 8 and differential reinforcement of low rate 3-s schedules. For…

The experiment reported herein was conducted to determine whether interresponse-time (IRT) shaping can produce different response rates in 2 components of a multiple schedule that are equated with respect to reinforcement rate. To this end, pigeons' key pecks were reinforced with food, if they terminated IRTs that were more extreme (shorter in 1…

College students exhibited impulsivity if, in the first of 2 sessions, they consistently chose an immediate, small reinforcer (15-s cartoon video followed by 75 s of waiting) over a delayed, large reinforcer (55-s prereinforcer delay, 25-s video, 10 additional s of waiting), or self-control if they showed the opposite preference. Previously,…

Nonautomated or tabletop procedures are widely used in derived stimulus relations research. These procedures offer several advantages to the researcher, not least of which is the interactive format of the task. However, this feature is often criticized because of the possibility of experimenter cuing and imprecise experimental control over task…

In Experiment 1, 12 senior citizens from the community were trained with 18 sets of conditional discriminations. Training included 2-, 3-, and 4-choice matching-to-sample (MTS) configurations in linear series (LS), many-to-one (MTO), and one-to-many (OTM) training structures. Training structure order was counterbalanced across participants. The…

One variation of contingency management involves providing vouchers with monetary value for the provision of a biological sample indicating no recent drug use. These vouchers can be exchanged for goods or services. The schedule with which the vouchers are disbursed has been studied and results suggest that those schedules that incorporate…