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AbstractAlthough feedback is a widely used intervention for improving performance, it is unclear what characteristics individuals prefer and what is necessary for it to be effective. The purpose of this study was to systematically extend Simonian and Brand (2022) by addressing the limitations of the study and adding a best‐treatment phase. During an acquisition phase, participants received either positive, corrective, or no feedback upon task completion. Nine of 10 participants mastered the task that was associated with corrective feedback, and one participant mastered the task with no feedback. Eight participants completed a preference phase in which they were provided a choice of either positive or corrective feedback when learning to play a novel game. Half of the eight participants showed a preference for corrective feedback, and the remaining participants had mixed preferences. Overall, corrective feedback was more efficacious and more preferred than positive feedback.

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AbstractIn this article, we describe a mediational theory of emergent or derived relations resulting from matching‐to‐sample procedures that produce equivalence and transformation of function. According to a mediational theory, behaviors that occur at the time of reinforcement mediate subsequent behavioral relations referred to as “derived” or “emergent.” Such relations have been documented for decades in studies using mostly matching‐to‐sample procedures with humans and nonhumans. In both verbal human and nonhuman participants, the mediating behaviors consist of differential responding to the sample stimulus. In humans, such behaviors are mostly, but not necessarily, verbal; in nonhumans they include a variety of sample‐specific responses, sometimes called “coding.” The proposed mediational theory, based only on the four‐term contingency and the basic principles of operant learning, makes specific predictions and explains results from a broad range of experiments. There are at least three important implications of a mediational theory. First, if by “derived” or “emergent” one means untrained or unreinforced, then derived relations may not exist. Second, if there are no derived relations, then theories of such relations may not be necessary. Third, a mediational theory of relational responding has potentially important implications for clinical practice.

AbstractWhen we treat behavior within an evolutionary framework and as temporally extended flow, two fundamental questions arise: (a) What is an organism? and (b) What is behavior? An organism is a process that stays intact by constantly exchanging energy with the environment. It takes in resources and puts out waste. The behavior of an organism consists of those process parts of the organism process that make up the exchange. These activities serve the function of reproducing, which generally depends on surviving. Surviving and reproducing depend on responding to phylogenetically important events (PIEs). A PIE induces activities that enhance or mitigate the PIE. Organisms respond not only to a PIE but also to events that covary with the PIE. Both activities and environmental features may covary with a PIE. When either type of covariance is introduced to an organism, behavior adapts over time. The early stages of adaptation constitute what researchers call “goal direction,” and the later stages constitute what researchers call “habit.” Behavior and environment constitute a dynamic system, and manipulations of the covariances and environmental features of the system allow many experimental interventions. This molar approach allows experiments on goal direction and habit to be understood without appeal to everyday mentalistic terms.

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AbstractResurgence can be defined as increases in previously reinforced and subsequently extinguished target responding when conditions for an alternative response worsen. Worsening of alternative conditions, such as extinction, has been linked to relapse of clinically relevant behavior. Preclinical researchers have evaluated whether punishing target responses while differentially reinforcing an alternative response could reduce resurgence when conditions are worsened with extinction, with mixed results. In the present investigation, we systematically replicated this line of research with human participants recruited via crowdsourcing, using response cost as punishment. During Phase 1, we reinforced target responses with 100 points per delivery, exchangeable for money. During Phase 2, we reinforced alternative responses, discontinued point reinforcement for target responses, and parametrically manipulated across groups the magnitude of point loss (1, 100, 320, or 1,000 points) contingent on target responses. During Phase 3, we tested for resurgence by extinguishing target and alternative responses. Added punishment systematically decreased target responding during Phase 2 but did not influence resurgence during Phase 3. With a meta‐analysis, we compared our findings with existing research examining a range of punishers and species. The results of the meta‐analysis comport with the present findings, suggesting that the inclusion of punishment reduces target responding during DRA but, overall, has no systematic effects on resurgence.

AbstractTo maximize its influence, applied behavior analysis must both create solutions and shape public policy to implement those solutions at scale. From the perspective of data‐driven decision making, it is illogical to talk about seeking public policy influence without consulting evidence showing when influence has been achieved. One relevant form of evidence is the attention that behavioral solutions receive in published discussions about policy issues, and here I show how much of this attention has been earned by articles published in Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. I also propose using the same kind of data to support finer grained analyses focusing on specific behavior problems, specific types of interventions, and the research programs of individual investigators. Although this is far from a complete account of the influence of applied behavior analysis on policy, it is better to have data than none if the goal is to transform the quest for influence on policy from a matter of speculation and casual discussion into an evidence‐based practice.

The use of online instruction has increased substantially in the last few years. An important aspect of remote instruction that has received some attention via survey-based research is student webcam usage. There are few empirical strategies to increase students’ webcam usage. In the present study, we replicated a prior study by providing students with points contingent on webcam usage during remote college instruction. An alternating treatments design was used to assess the influence of the contingent point delivery on webcam usage. Twenty-four undergraduate students in a psychology course participated. The contingency enhanced webcam usage and the points served as effective reinforcers. A simple reinforcement contingency can improve webcam usage in a college classroom, but outcomes can likely be enhanced by including additional antecedent operations.

AbstractSimple habit reversal training is effective at reducing public speaking disfluencies; however, the time and resources necessary to implement this intervention may reduce practicality for widespread adoption. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of asynchronous awareness training. Four participants completed a computer‐based training consisting of response description and practice detecting recorded disfluencies prior to taking a quiz in which they scored the frequency of disfluencies in a recorded speech. Relative to baseline, all participants' rates of disfluencies decreased following training. In addition, acceptability ratings were high and all participants indicated greater willingness to participate in asynchronous training than in‐person training.

Surgida dentro do paradigma Darwinista, a Memética consistiria em um modelo explicativo para a evolução das culturas. Não obstante, tal modelo explicativo é alvo de constantes críticas e dúvidas, sendo muitas delas provavelmente derivadas da concepção internalista de comportamento adotada pela Memética. O internalismo versa que os comportamentos dos organismos são expressos e controlados por instâncias internas (cérebro, alma, mente, personalidade, entre outros). A pressuposição internalista do comportamento humano na Memética, assim, abrange todas as etapas do algoritmo darwiniano - variação, seleção e transmissão - aplicado para compreender a evolução das culturas e demais práticas culturais. Diante disso, o presente artigo buscou tecer uma crítica behaviorista radical à concepção internalizante de comportamento humano que sustenta o modelo evolutivo-cultural memético. Ademais, possíveis reparações teóricas são sugeridas a partir de um prisma analítico-comportamental, de modo a tanto auxiliar a Memética em suas problemáticas basilares como contribuir para o aprimoramento do modelo explicativo em questão.Palavras-chave: memética, internalismo, behaviorismo radical, análise do comportamento