Human conditioning research shows that learning is closely related to consciously available contingency knowledge, requires attentional resources, and is influenced by language. This research suggests a cognitive model in which extinction consists of changes in contingency beliefs in long-term memory. Laboratory and clinical evidence on extinction…

Replies to Gholson's commentary (PS 522 655) on the article by Coldren and Colombo in this monograph. Discusses limitations in the shift procedure methodology traditionally used in research on discrimination learning, and considers the use in future research of methodologies that can precisely decompose children's responses to feedback during…

Five adolescents with autism, 5 control participants, and 4 child controls received rewards for varying their sequences of responses while playing a computer game. In preceding and following phases, rewards were provided at approximately the same rate but were independent of variability. When reinforced, variability increased significantly in all…

One hundred and eighteen subjects participated in an 18-trial four-choice probability learning task to determine if probability learning data could be described by a family of learning curves and to identify ability and personality correlates of these curves. (Author)

The paper identified some of the major elements of political learning and suggests some of the conceptual links among these. The basic assumption of this paper is that the several existing approaches to learning and development can account for a significant portion of political learning. A selective picture of concepts and empirical knowledge…

Proceeeding through each chapter of B.F. Skinner's book, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, the author presents selected quotations and then discusses Skinner's main contribution to cognitive-behavior therapy. (CB)

Author believes that more general semanticists today have lost touch with the possibilities Korzybski opened to human beings, primarily that of liberating the self" from predetermined concepts and conditioned responses which hold mankind back from total freedom and fulfillment. Characterizing most semanticists as cerebral computers sans…

Considers the debate about learning as based on conditioning or cognitive processes. Explores historical episodes in this debate in which issues were resolved first in favor of conditioning theory and then increasingly in favor of cognitive processes. Interprets the study by Coldren and Colombo reported in this monograph (PS 522 654) as a…

This article provides a selective review and integration of the behavioral literature on Pavlovian extinction. The first part reviews evidence that extinction does not destroy the original learning, but instead generates new learning that is especially context-dependent. The second part examines insights provided by research on several related…

Adaptive motor actions require prior knowledge of instrumental contingencies. With practice, these actions can become highly automatic in nature. However, the molecular and anatomical substrates mediating these related forms of learning are not understood. In the present study, we used in situ hybridization to measure the mRNA levels of two…

This study examines the modification of smoking behavior resulting from smoking on command of a tape-recorded message. Neither paced groups nor the self-paced control group significantly differed in reductions in smoking at six-month follow-up. Cognitive dissonance is suggested in explanation of initial smoking reductions for self-paced subjects.…

Western psychologists define "set" as a group of items, a disposition toward certain stimuli or certain responses, and the establishment of habitual actions. D. N. Uznadze explains "set" by postulating a general tendency toward habitual action, but qualifies this by stating that the tendency is governed by special factors…

Today, the term 'behavior therapy' has no clear denotation. Those who adhere to the more delimited meanings of behavior therapy tend to disregard significant nonbehavioral therapeutic development. They also overlook convincing data demonstrating that in adult humans, conditioning is produced through cognitive mediation. Adoption of a more…

The present paper describes a method combining thought stopping and covert assertion and reports its application in six case histories the majority of which would usually be classified as phobic rather than obsessional. The paper reports successful followups. (Author/LA)