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AbstractRecent behavior analytic studies have examined behavioral skills training to teach adults to arrange safe infant sleeping environments. These studies were conducted in an analogue environment and with all training components delivered by an expert staff trainer. The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend this literature by substituting video‐based training for behavioral skills training. We assessed whether expectant caregivers could arrange safe infant sleeping environments following video‐based training. The results suggested that video‐based training alone resulted in positive outcomes for a portion of participants, whereas a subset of participants required feedback to reach mastery criteria. The social validity data suggest that the participants found the training procedures favorable.

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AbstractThe progression of recreational drinking to alcohol use disorder is characterized by loss of control over seeking, which involves continued use of alcohol despite negative consequences. The present study proposes a novel maladaptive alcohol self‐administration task in which animals are trained to withhold alcohol drinking in the presence of an auditory cue signaling consequence (conflict phase) but to drink freely when there is no consequence (neutral phase). These phases are performed within trial; successful performance involves waiting for the conflict phase to end and drinking during the neutral phase. We discuss the background and implementation of the task, its relation to existing models, and its relevance to the field of translational alcohol research. Importantly, we also present evidence of its efficacy. Both male and female Long–Evans rats are capable of performing the maladaptive alcohol self‐administration task for both sweetened and unsweetened alcohol solutions. Finally, we show that acute injection of a pharmacological stressor (yohimbine) significantly disrupted performance of the task in both sexes and reinforcers. We suggest the maladaptive alcohol self‐administration task may prove particularly useful in models of alcohol use disorder or vulnerability to this disorder where its application may reveal maladaptive neural circuit adaptations responsible for motivational perturbations associated with loss of control over alcohol seeking.

AbstractThis study demonstrates the use of two web‐based programs, one to identify video preferences and the other to assess their reinforcing effects. We used the Multiple‐Stimulus‐Without‐Replacement Preference Assessment Tool (MSWO PAT) to identify the video preference hierarchies of seven participants, ages 4–11 years old. We then used a customized reinforcer assessment program that arranged a concurrent‐chains preparation with programmed conjugate schedules of reinforcement. Button presses emitted by participants modulated the quality (volume and opacity) of selected videos on a moment‐to‐moment basis, allowing us to identify the reinforcing effects of the videos in little time. The results showed that the preference assessment had predictive value for five of seven participants. We discuss the MSWO PAT, parameters that may affect the identification of preferences and the use of conjugate schedules to identify reinforcers.

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AbstractOperant behavior can reflect the influence of goal‐directed and habitual processes. These can be distinguished by changes to response rate following devaluation of the reinforcing outcome. Whether a response is goal directed or habitual depends on whether devaluation affects response rate. Response rate can be decomposed into frequencies of bouts and pauses by analyzing the distribution of interresponse times. This study sought to characterize goal‐directed and habitual behaviors in terms of bout‐initiation rate, within‐bout response rate, bout length, and bout duration. Data were taken from three published studies that compared sensitivity to devaluation following brief and extended training with variable‐interval schedules. Analyses focused on goal‐directed and habitual responding, a comparison of a habitual response to a similarly trained response that had been converted back to goal‐directed status after a surprising event, and a demonstration of contextual control of habit and goal direction in the same subjects. Across experiments and despite responses being clearly distinguished as goal directed and habitual by total response rate, analyses of bout‐initiation rate, within‐bout rate, bout length, and bout duration did not reveal a pattern that distinguished goal‐directed from habitual responding.

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