Acceptance and commitment therapy asserts that in clinical problems such as rumination and depression, making sense continues despite accompanying aversive consequences, because sense-making is reinforcing, particularly when it leads to experiential avoidance. The following series of experiments aimed to provide preliminary empirical evidence for…

Reinforcement learning approaches to cognitive modeling represent task acquisition as learning to choose the sequence of steps that accomplishes the task while maximizing a reward. However, an apparently unrecognized problem for modelers is choosing when, what, and how much to reward; that is, when (the moment: end of trial, subtask, or some other…

Barba's (2012) article deftly weaves three main themes in one argument about operant variability. From general theoretical considerations on operant behavior (Catania, 1973), Barba derives methodological guidelines about response differentiation and applies them to the study of operant variability. In the process, he uncovers unnoticed features of…

Several recent studies have explored what Michael (e.g., 1982) termed the "value-altering" effect and the "behavior-altering" effect of motivating operations. One aspect of the behavior-altering effect that has garnered no recent attention involves changes in stimulus control produced by motivating operations. To call attention to this aspect of…

The exponential demand equation proposed by Hursh and Silberberg (2008) provides an estimate of the essential value of a good as a function of price. The model predicts that essential value should remain constant across changes in the magnitude of a reinforcer, but may change as a function of motivational operations. In Experiment 1, rats' demand…

Lewis rats have been shown to make more impulsive choices than Fischer 344 rats in discrete trial choice procedures that arrange fixed (i.e., nontitrating) reinforcement parameters. However, nontitrating procedures yield only gross estimates of preference, as choice measures in animal subjects are rarely graded at the level of the individual…

Virtual organisms animated by a selectionist theory of behavior dynamics worked on concurrent random interval schedules where both the rate and magnitude of reinforcement were varied. The selectionist theory consists of a set of simple rules of selection, recombination, and mutation that act on a population of potential behaviors by means of a…

The matching law suggests that behavior is emitted in proportion to the level of reinforcement available. The current study investigated this effect in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and focused on the effects of magnitude of reinforcement (Study 1), and rate of reinforcement (Studies 2 and 3), on matching performance. Studies 1…

We examined two methods to facilitate the emergence of untaught intraverbal responses to children with autism. Listener behavior training (LT) involved reinforcement of a selection-based response following presentation of an array of pictures on an iPad® and an auditory instruction describing a characteristic of the picture. Stimulus pairing (SP)…

Teachers and education leaders are aware that their words can have a significant effect on their students. Words can build them up and encourage them to work hard or tear them down and lead them to despair. The language used in teacher evaluations is no different, says teacher Brooke Eisenbach. In this article, she shares stories of colleagues…

Students with or at-risk for emotional disturbance (ED) frequently receive interventions that include a direct manipulation of consequences. The ability of educators to identify reinforcing stimuli that may function as powerful consequences determines the success of reinforcement-based strategies. Choice-based stimulus preference assessments…

Previous studies have examined the maturation of learning and memory abilities during early stages of development. By comparison, much less is known about the ontogeny of learning and memory during later stages of development, including adolescence. In Experiment 1, we tested the ability of adolescent and adult rats to learn a Pavlovian negative…

In this study we analyzed the effects of a self-monitoring and self-monitoring plus reinforcement intervention on classroom behavior. A typically-developing high school student demonstrating difficulty staying on-task during classroom instruction was observed in three classroom settings associated with high levels of off-task behavior. During…

Consumer behavior analysis can be applied over a wide range of economic topics in which the main focus is the contingencies that influence the behavior of the economic agent. This paper provides an overview on the work that has been done on the impact from motivating operations at the point of online purchase situation. Motivating operations, a…

The feedback sandwich technique-make positive comments; provide critique; end with positive comments-is commonly recommended to feedback givers despite scant evidence of its efficacy. These two studies (N = 20; N = 350) of written peer feedback with third-year medical students on clinical patient note-writing assignments indicate that students…