Reward has been shown to change behavior as a result of incentive learning (by motivating the individual to increase their effort) and instrumental learning (by increasing the frequency of a particular behavior). However, Palminteri et al. (2011) demonstrated that reward can also improve the incidental learning of a motor skill even when…

Every article on stimulus equivalence or derived stimulus relations published in the "Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis" was evaluated in terms of characteristics that are relevant to the development of applied technologies: the type of participants, settings, procedure automated vs. tabletop), stimuli, and stimulus sensory modality; types of…

Response variability, a fundamental characteristic of behavior, may be in some cases an induced effect of reinforcement schedules. Research on schedule-induced response variability has shown that continuous reinforcement results in less variability than intermittent reinforcement schedules. Studies on the effects of intermittency of reinforcement,…

Investigated simultaneous occurrence of emergent stimulus-response relations (functional equivalence) and stimulus-stimulus relations (stimulus equivalence). Trained 4- and 5-year olds to emit specified responses to pairs of stimuli in one setting (original training) and to emit other responses to one member of each pair in another setting…

Children and adults were trained and tested on formation of novel simple discriminations and conditional stimulus relations. Subjects who formed these sets were trained and tested on formation of stimulus equivalence classes. A modest majority of children matched directly paired stimuli; a few matched indirectly paired stimuli. All normal adults…

Ten author-contributed papers present information on stimulus control research and developmental disabilities. Articles address such isues as the role of naming, development of stimulus classes, control by exclusion, and comparison of trial-and-error and graduated stimulus change procedures. (CL)

Results indicate that the instructions (and related information concerning alpha) rather than the biofeedback are critical in alpha biofeedback training and that this training does not appear to have utility for controlling arousal under stress. (Author)

Obese women were treated in behavior modification programs for overeating. Behavior programs were accompanied by subliminal stimulation and by symbiotic and control messages. The symbiotic condition gave evidence of enhancing weight loss. This finding supports the proposition that subliminal stimulation of symbiotic fantasies can enhance the…

Two children (ages 10 and 12) with severe mental retardation were trained to make the same response when presented with 2 initially unrelated stimuli and then trained to make a new response when presented with 1 of those stimuli. Children were then assessed on their response to the second stimulus. Results of the tests for the emergent…

The initial purpose of the present study was to replicate procedures for teaching preschool children to recruit attention at appropriate times by having an experimenter signal the availability and unavailability of attention (i.e., arrange a multiple schedule involving reinforcement and extinction; Tiger & Hanley, 2004). Following the development…

Investigated whether women undergoing outpatient chemotherapy for breast cancer can develop classically conditioned emotional distress. Patients' responses to a distinctive stimulus were assessed in a location not associated with chemotherapy administration. Results supported hypothesis that pairing a distinctive stimulus with chemotherapy would…

We studied economic choice behavior in capuchin monkeys by offering them to choose between two different foods available in variable amounts. When monkeys selected between familiar foods, their choice patterns were well-described in terms of relative value of the two foods. A leading view in economics and biology is that such behavior results from…

Accounts of learning and generalization typically focus on factors related to lasting changes in representation (i.e., long-term memory). The authors present evidence that shorter term effects also play a critical role in determining performance and that these recency effects can be subdivided into perceptual and decisional components.…

Trained preschoolers and adults on three sets of successive discriminations with stimuli labeled A, B, and R. Tested for derived stimulus-response relations and stimulus-stimulus relations. Adults displayed class-consistent B-R and A-B performances over all conditions. Children's display of class-consistent B-R performance varied by training…

Projects that soon a complete mechanistic understanding of simple forms of learning will be available. Describes some of the recent advances in neuroscience and psychology in understanding the changes in neural circuits that occur during certain behavioral situations. Suggests that learning involves the activation of second messenger systems. (TW)