A total of 30 infants with an average age of 83.4 days were trained for one l8-minute, two nine-minute, or three six-minute sessions separated by 24-hour intervals in order to investigate long-term retention of operant foot kicking acquired in the mobile conjugative reinforcement paradigm. (Author/CI)

This article presents an interpretation of autoshaping, and positive and negative automaintenance, based on a neural-network model. The model makes no distinction between operant and respondent learning mechanisms, and takes into account knowledge of hippocampal and dopaminergic systems. Four simulations were run, each one using an "A-B-A" design…

A theory of attending and reinforcement in conditional discriminations (Nevin, Davison, & Shahan, 2005) is extended to working memory in delayed matching to sample by adding terms for disruption of attending during the retention interval. Like its predecessor, the theory assumes that reinforcers and disruptors affect the independent probabilities…

Children with autism and related disabilities frequently fail to develop echoic repertoires. Among the ways in which treatment approaches vary is the extent to which automatic reinforcement is utilized. The present experiment was designed to test the efficacy of a procedure that incorporates automatic reinforcement and socially mediated…

Three experiments with rats examined reacquisition of an operant response after either extinction or a response-elimination procedure that included occasional reinforced responses during extinction. In each experiment, reacquisition was slower when response elimination had included occasional reinforced responses, although the effect was…

Attempts to initiate and maintain awareness and expression of feelings can be successfully implemented through either teacher reinforcement procedures or feelings classes." Both methods merit further attention. (CJ)

One hundred twenty-eight preschool boys were subjects in a 4x2x2 factorial design to investigate the change in reinforcer efficacy as a function of prior stimulus exposure. The factors were: (1) amount of repetition, 5, 25, 45, or 65; (2) reinforcer, good or bell; and (3) satiator, good or bell. Two additional groups were run as control groups to…

Research supported in whole by Public Health Service Grant HD-00908 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

The notion of differentially reinforcing low rates of undesirable behavior (DRL) is examined. Further, the status of the full session DRL strategy as alternative to punishment is questioned in context of a strictly operant definition of punishment. A reexamination of the data from some studies reveals the possibility that Ss respond to said DRL…

This study on operant conditioning showed that both groups showed significant improvement in reading skills from pretest to posttest, but that the reinforced group showed significantly more improvement than the nonreinforced group. (Author)

A primary purpose of the token system is to expand the operant model in order to provide a broader reinforcement base. The ten procedural considerations necessary for implementing a token system are presented. Beyond this, fundamental knowledge of operant principles remains essential in order to apply the token system correctly. (Author/KJ)