Indexador

Squirrel monkeys pressed a lever to produce food on several fixed‐ratio schedules; they could also bite a rubber hose. Biting attack occurred during the postreinforcement pause and in early portions of the ratio response run. Also, biting attacks increased after transitions to higher values of the fixed‐ratio requirement and in extinction. The results show that extinction‐induced aggression effects occur in primates.

Reliable acquistion of the pigeon's key‐peck response resulted from repeated unconditional (response‐independent) presentations of food after the response key was illuminated momentarily. Comparison groups showed that acquisition was dependent upon light—food pairings, in that order.

Four pigeons were trained in a one‐way shuttle box avoidance situation. Three of the birds met the criterion of 90% avoidances; the fourth, although frequently avoiding successfully, was too erratic to meet the criterion. Avoidance responding in two of the birds was subsequently extinguished, showing that the response was true avoidance, and not escape from the buzzer warning stimulus. In Experiment 2, the three birds that had met criterion in Experiment 1 were trained in a two‐way avoidance task, and all three met the criterion of 90% avoidances. The shuttle box therefore provides a rapid and reliable method of obtaining avoidance performance in pigeons.

Resumo não informado pela fonte indexada.

Resumo não informado pela fonte indexada.

Resumo não informado pela fonte indexada.

Resumo não informado pela fonte indexada.

Resumo não informado pela fonte indexada.

Resumo não informado pela fonte indexada.

Recent studies suggested a general behavioral engineering approach to behavioral disorders by portable operant treatment instruments. The approach was applied to the problem of poor posture, specifically rounding of the back or slouching. An apparatus was developed that provided a warning stimulus followed by an aversive tone for the duration of slouching. Slouching was thereby punished by onset of the tone, and non‐slouching was reinforced by tone termination and postponement. Twenty‐five adults wore the apparatus during their normal working day during alternate periods in which the aversive tone was connected and disconnected experimentally. A miniature time‐meter recorded the duration of slouching. The results showed that slouching decreased for each subject during each period in which slouching produced the aversive tone. For two subjects, a second control procedure was applied in which slouching terminated the tone. The result was an increase of slouching, demonstrating that the postural changes were controlled by the scheduled relation between the aversive tone and the response, and not by other factors such as simple response feedback. The substantial changes in posture indicate that the present procedure may prove to be an effective treatment alternative and suggests the general value of the behavioral engineering approach.