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Se empieza por destacar la Teoría de la Conducta de Ribes y colegas como el sistema psicológico probablemente con mayor grado de cientificidad. Se destaca también la figura del propio Emilio Ribes como un psicólogo total. El artículo a comentar es sitúa en este contexto. Se refiere al desligamiento funcional como la propiedad que define al comportamiento psicológico respecto del comportamiento biológico, implicando en su consideración la cuádruple causalidad aristotélica, como metafísica de la conducta, más allá de las concepciones al uso. Sobre una base aristotélica y tomando importantes conceptos de la Teoría de la Conducta se propone un conductismo radicalmente humano, más centrado en la noción de persona que en la noción genérica de organismo.

Two groups of six rats each were trained to respond to two levers for a food reinforcer. One group was trained on concurrent variable‐ratio 20 extinction schedules of reinforcement. The second group was trained on a concurrent variable‐interval 27‐s extinction schedule. In both groups, lever‐schedule assignments changed randomly following reinforcement; a light cued the lever providing the next reinforcer. In the next condition, the light cue was removed and reinforcer assignment strictly alternated between levers. The next two conditions redetermined, in order, the first two conditions. Preference pulses, defined as a tendency for relative response rate to decline to the just‐reinforced alternative with time since reinforcement, only appeared during the extinction schedule. Although the pulse's functional form was well described by a reinforcer‐induction equation, there was a large residual between actual data and a pulse‐as‐artifact simulation (McLean, Grace, Pitts, & Hughes, 2014) used to discern reinforcer‐dependent contributions to pulsing. However, if that simulation was modified to include a win–stay tendency (a propensity to stay on the just‐reinforced alternative), the residual was greatly reduced. Additional modifications of the parameter values of the pulse‐as‐artifact simulation enabled it to accommodate the present results as well as those it originally accommodated. In its revised form, this simulation was used to create a model that describes response runs to the preferred alternative as terminating probabilistically, and runs to the unpreferred alternative as punctate with occasional perseverative response runs. After reinforcement, choices are modeled as returning briefly to the lever location that had been just reinforced. This win–stay propensity is hypothesized as due to reinforcer induction.

The earliest stages of functional communication training (FCT) involve providing immediate and continuous reinforcement for a communicative response (FCR) that is functionally equivalent to the targeted problem behavior. However, maintaining immediate reinforcement is not practical, and the introduction of delays is associated with increased problem behavior. The present study evaluated the effects of providing alternative reinforcers during delays to reinforcement with a 13‐year‐old boy with an intellectual disability. Problem behavior was less likely when alternative reinforcers were available during delays.

Aversive control is a common method to reduce undesirable behavior in horses. However, it often results in unintended negative side effects, including potential abuse of the animal. Procedures based on positive reinforcement, such as differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO), may reduce undesirable behaviors with fewer negative consequences. The current study used DRO schedules to reduce pawing using a multiple baseline design across 3 horses. Results indicated that DRO schedules were effective at reducing pawing. However, individual differences in sensitivity to DRO and reinforcer efficacy may be important considerations.

Some individuals with developmental disabilities engage in problem behavior to escape or avoid auditory stimuli. In this study, a 6‐year‐old boy with autism engaged in severe aggression in the presence of specific sounds. Following an assessment based on the procedures described by McCord, Iwata, Galensky, Ellingson, and Thomson (2001), we treated negatively reinforced behavior using noncontingent reinforcement and time‐out from positive reinforcement in the absence of extinction. Treatment was effective in reducing aggression across multiple sounds.

Abstract There is disagreement about how to characterize the environment‐behavior relations involved in the reinforcement of behavioral variability. The present research examined some of these issues using food‐maintained, 4‐peck sequences in pigeons. Experiment 1 evaluated the claim that behavioral variability is not reinforced directly but, rather, is the byproduct of changing over within sequences. Considerably higher levels of behavioral variation occurred under a relative‐frequency threshold contingency than under a contingency that required a changeover but not variability per se. These results are consistent with the argument that behavioral variability is reinforced directly. Experiment 2 assessed the effects on variation levels of manipulating inter‐trial and inter‐response intervals. Variability increased with longer inter‐response intervals but not with longer inter‐trial intervals. These results are consistent with multiple explanations, including the notion that remembering past behavior interferes with the emission of reinforced variation. Consequently, Experiment 3 examined more directly the relation between remembering and reinforced variation. Variation levels were not affected by a concurrent contingency that encouraged pigeons to remember their past behavior. The implications of this research are presented in the context of working towards an understanding of the environment‐behavior relations involved in the reinforcement of behavioral variability.

Deciding on appropriate sampling to obtain representative samples of behavior is important but not straightforward, because the relative duration of the target behavior may affect its observation in a given sampling interval. Work‐sampling methods, which offer a way to adjust the frequency of sampling according to a priori or ongoing estimates of the behavior to achieve a preselected level of representativeness, may provide a solution. Full‐week observations of 7 behaviors were conducted for 3 students with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disabilities. Work‐sampling methods were used to select momentary time samples from the full time‐of‐interest, which produced representative samples. However, work sampling required impractically high numbers of time samples to obtain representative samples. More practical momentary time samples produced less representative samples, particularly for low‐duration behaviors. The utility and limits of work‐sampling methods for applied behavior analysis are discussed.

The effects of conjugate reinforcement on the responding of 13 college students were examined in three experiments. Conjugate reinforcement was provided via key presses that changed the clarity of pictures displayed on a computer monitor in a manner proportional to the rate of responding. Experiment 1, which included seven parameters of clarity change per response, revealed that responding decreased as the percentage clarity per response increased for all five participants. These results indicate that each participant's responding was sensitive to intensity change, which is a parameter of conjugate reinforcement schedules. Experiment 2 showed that responding increased during conjugate reinforcement phases and decreased during extinction phases for all four participants. Experiment 3 also showed that responding increased during conjugate reinforcement and further showed that responding decreased during a conjugate negative punishment condition for another four participants. Directions for future research with conjugate schedules are briefly discussed.

Estrogens have been shown to have an inhibitory effect on food intake under free‐feeding conditions, yet the effects of estrogens on food‐maintained operant responding have been studied to a much lesser extent and, thus, are not well understood. Therefore, the purpose of the present experiment was to use a behavioral economics paradigm to assess differences in demand elasticity between mice with knockout of the estrogen receptor subtype α, knockout of subtype β, and their wild type controls. The mice responded in a closed economy, and the price of food was increased by increasing the fixed‐ratio response requirement every four sessions. Overall, we found that mice with the knockout of receptor subtype α had the most elastic demand functions. Therefore, under these conditions, estrogens increased food seeking via activation of the receptor subtype α. The results were inconsistent with those reported by previous studies that employed free‐feeding conditions.