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Functional analysis and treatment of problem behavior by domesticated canines
Ano: 2025
Abstract Functional analyses are used to assess maintaining variables of behavior. Despite the large amount of research on functional analyses with humans, there are limited examples with nonhumans and even fewer studies incorporating modifications to standard methods of assessment with nonhumans. One modification that has yet to be evaluated with nonhuman animals is the trial‐based functional analysis in which control and test conditions are embedded in naturalistic environments. This study compared a standard functional analysis with a trial‐based functional analysis across different topographies of problem behavior with dogs. The results of the functional analyses corresponded for every dog. Individualized treatments were designed to reduce problem behavior. Implications of the trial‐based functional analysis include feasibility for privately owned dogs and dogs under the care of shelters. The trial‐based functional analysis offers a modification to established functional analyses that may allow increased access to the assessment of problem behavior.
Functional equivalence and class expansion in rats using olfactory stimuli
Ano: 2025
Abstract Simple discrimination reversal procedures have been successful in demonstrating functional equivalence classes in animals. The current study tested whether class expansion could be demonstrated in rats following the formation of functional equivalence classes. Olfactory stimuli were assigned to two arbitrary sets, and rats were trained on a successive simple discrimination task to respond to members of only one set at a time. When discriminated responding emerged, the reinforcement contingencies were reversed. After repeated reversals, probe sessions demonstrated functional equivalence classes in 14 of 15 rats across three experiments. Subsequently, the reversal procedure was used to train functional equivalence between one exemplar from each established class and two novel stimuli. Tests for class expansion, conducted between stimuli in the same set but without a history of training in the same session, were mixed. Experiment 1, which began expansion training after six‐member classes were formed, did not provide clear evidence for class expansion. In Experiments 2 and 3, where expansion training began with smaller classes, class expansion was observed in six of eight rats. Class expansion is a property shared with human equivalence classes, suggesting that the discrimination reversal procedure provides a promising strategy for continuing research on equivalence in animals.
Further assessment of a model of changeover behavior: Implications for the matching law
Ano: 2025
Abstract Choice in concurrent schedules is organized in visits to each alternative, and the duration of these visits is exponentially distributed. A model of changeover behavior based on this fact successfully described changeover behavior in two large data sets from published experiments, but some limitations were apparent in this analysis, seemingly reflecting an effect of the passage of time on the data across the lengthy experiments. This article describes an experiment that exposed rats to a dynamic concurrent variable‐interval procedure designed to address these limitations. One of 35 possible combinations of overall and relative reinforcement rates was chosen pseudorandomly at the beginning of each session without signaling the specific combination in effect. By allowing the sensitivity parameter in the generalized matching law to be a function of the overall reinforcement rate, the model provided a satisfactory description of the results. This modification includes free parameters that presumably reflect the effects of how discriminable the alternatives are and how costly it is to switch between them, increasing the scope of the matching law. The updated model holds promise as the foundation for a general theory of performance in concurrent schedules of reinforcement.
Further evaluation of language skills correlated with discriminated responding in multiple schedule arrangements
Ano: 2025
Abstract Multiple schedule treatments are frequently used to thin the reinforcement schedule for functional communication responses (FCR) following functional communication training. Multiple schedules are often highly effective at decreasing FCR rates by establishing stimulus control. In some cases, individuals do not readily discriminate between reinforcement and extinction components. Previous research has shown that receptive and expressive color identification are strongly correlated with discriminated responding in a multiple schedule. In this study, we replicated this research by evaluating how color‐related skills correlate with discriminated responding in a multiple schedule. In addition, using a standardized assessment, we examined the role of receptive and expressive language skills on discriminated responding in a multiple schedule. For our 11 participants, we found that expressive color identification correlated with discriminated responding in a multiple schedule. Furthermore, when we more broadly examined participants' language skills, we found a stronger correlation between language and discriminated responding.
Generalization across dimensions: A model for three‐alternative choice
Ano: 2025
Abstract This experiment was an investigation how reinforcers for one response in the presence of one stimulus may generalize to other dimensionally related stimuli. Four pigeons were trained on a three‐alternative concurrent variable‐interval schedule in which, after an initial condition, extinction was arranged for one alternative. In Part 1, we varied the reinforcer rate on a dimensionally distant alternative while keeping the reinforcer rate on the dimensionally closer stimulus constant. In Part 2, the reinforcer rate for the distant alternative was kept constant and that for the closer alternative was varied. Increasing the reinforcer rate for the closer alternative increased responding on the extinction alternative, but increasing the reinforcer rate on the distant alternative decreased extinction response rates. This result is predicted by the generalization across dimensions model. This model also helps to explain the results from previously reported choice research that involves multiple alternatives, and particularly why Luce's indifference principle is sometimes supported and sometimes not.
Generalized target behavior reductions and maintenance of effects following an augmented competing stimulus assessment sequence
Ano: 2025
Abstract Competing stimulus assessments are one technology that aids in the development of treatment for automatically reinforced behavior. However, competing stimulus assessments do not always yield robust results. Stereotypic behaviors of different subtypes may require procedural modifications to successfully identify competing stimuli. The current investigation included functional analyses to determine whether participant responding aligned with proposed subtypes for such behaviors. Next, we implemented augmented competing‐stimulus‐assessment (A‐CSA) procedures across target and generalization stimuli to determine whether (a) responding across either subtype was more likely to require intensive modifications and (b) the A‐CSA procedures promoted generalized target behavior reduction within stimulus classes. Lastly, a treatment evaluation was conducted to determine the durability of these findings and the generalization of the reduced target behavior to other settings. The general applicability of the subtyping model remains unclear, but two participants demonstrated maintenance of competition effects.
Humans exhibit associative symmetry in the absence of backward training and stimulus overlap
Ano: 2025
Abstract A recent survey of the evidence on associative symmetry in humans revealed that nearly all the demonstrations either unintentionally trained backward stimulus pairings and/or had a temporal overlap between the stimuli being trained. We consider these criticisms and improve on our own method of “associative networks.” In this method, participants learn multiple stimulus pairings via arbitrary matching‐to‐sample tasks in which the stimuli are concurrently presented as sample and comparison stimuli. In Experiment 1, human participants learned a bidirectional network (in which symmetry was synergistic) and a unidirectional network (in which symmetry was antagonistic) or two unidirectional networks (removing explicit reinforcement of backward stimulus pairings). In Experiment 2, participants learned two unidirectional networks; however, we removed the temporal overlap between sample and comparison stimuli by imposing a 1‐s delay between them. Both experiments showed robust evidence of symmetry, suggesting that the expression of symmetry in humans survives the most common confounds in published research.
I'm Not Like the Others: Atypical Research Subjects in JEAB Publications
Ano: 2025
Abstract Comparative psychologists have been criticized for using a limited number of species in drawing general conclusions about broad behavioral processes. There are numerous examples, however, of the inclusion by behavior analysts of atypical subjects in their research. To examine the frequency and diversity in subject species used in the experimental analysis of behavior (EAB), JEAB publications between 1958 and 2023 were reviewed for their use of subjects other than pigeons, rats, humans, and nonhuman primates. Two hundred and twenty‐one occurrences of these atypical subjects were found across 204 articles, with 65 distinct species across both vertebrate and invertebrate taxa. The highest spikes in the frequency of atypical subject use occurred in the earliest and latest JEAB issues. The results are discussed in terms of the reasons for using diverse species, trends in use over time, and how EAB might benefit from continued, or even increased, diversification in the species used in its research.
Improvement of procedural fidelity in discrete‐trial programs using computer‐based instruction to teach skilled observation
Ano: 2025
Abstract Procedural fidelity is an important component of behavioral intervention programs. The Train‐to‐Code software was used to teach skilled observation of implementation of three types of discrete‐trial programs, and improvement to procedural fidelity was assessed. Participants completed a training package that involved coding video examples and non‐examples of a teacher delivering each discrete trial program. The degree of prompting given to the trainee increased or decreased dynamically during training sessions based on participants' coding accuracy. The efficacy of the training was tested within subjects via pre‐ and posttest role plays in which participants delivered discrete‐trial programs to a scripted research assistant. Results indicated substantial improvement in discrete trial delivery at posttest. These results suggest that Train‐to‐Code may be an effective method for training delivery of discrete trial programs in applied settings.