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Apesar de ser considerado um dos desempenhos emergentes mais robustos em toda Psicologia da Aprendizagem, o responder por exclusão parece sofrer a interferência de variáveis ainda pouco estudadas. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar a influência da exposição prévia ao objeto novo sobre o desempenho de exclusão e a aprendizagem da relação nome-objeto após uma única tentativa de exclusão, em dez crianças com desenvolvimento típico (27 a 30 meses). Foram empregadas tarefas de discriminação condicional auditivo-visuais com o uso de brinquedos e máscara como alternativas de resposta. As sondas de exclusão foram realizadas em dois contextos experimentais distintos: com e sem a pré-exposição ao objeto indefinido utilizado nas sondas. A análise dos resultados evidenciou que a pré-exposição interferiu negativamente nos desempenhos de exclusão e aprendizagem, possivelmente por diminuir a dimensão da novidade do objeto e, consequentemente, favorecer a fusão de classes de estímulos definidos e indefinidos.

Para investigar os efeitos de justificativas sobre o seguimento de regras, dezoito universitários foram expostos a um procedimento de escolha segundo o modelo. A tarefa era apontar para cada um dos três estímulos de comparação em sequência. Cada estímulo de comparação apresentava apenas uma dimensão - cor (C), espessura (E) ou forma (F) - em comum com o estímulo modelo e diferia nas demais. A sequência simples (EFC) e a complexa (EFCFCE) eram corretas e as únicas a produzirem pontos em esquema de reforço contínuo. No Experimento 1, os 12 participantes foram distribuídos em quatro condições, com cinco fases cada. Na Fase 1, linha de base, nenhuma sequência era reforçada ou instruída. Cada uma das demais fases, de 20 tentativas, era iniciada com a apresentação da regra com ou da regra sem justificativa adicional para a emissão da sequência complexa. As condições diferiam apenas quanto à ordem em que as regras eram apresentadas para todos os participantes nas Fases 2, 3, 4 e 5. O Experimento 2 replicou o Experimento 1 para avaliar os efeitos de justificativas na ausência de pontos imediatos. Na Fase 1, o desempenho foi variável. Nas fases sem justificativa adicional, predominantemente foi apresentada a sequência simples. E nas fases com justificativa adicional a sequência predominantemente apresentada foi a complexa. Os resultados apoiam a proposição de que regras podem alterar a probabilidade de o comportamento por ela especificado vir a ocorrer no futuro, e tem implicações para o papel do controle por regras na explicação do comportamento. Palabras-clave: Regras e contingências; histórias de seguimento de regras; consequências futuras e imediatas; propriedades formais da regra; justificativas; práticas culturais; a explicação do comportamento.

We used a multiple baseline design across skills to evaluate the effects of a program to teach a classroom of children to respond to their name and a group call (i.e., precursors) as well as to peer mediate these precursors to promote compliance with a variety of multistep instructions. Teachers taught these skills via classwide behavior skills training and a lottery‐based reward contingency. Results showed that precursors to compliance, peer mediation, and compliance increased as a function of classwide teaching, and the teachers found the procedures and their effects to be highly acceptable.

This study tests the effectiveness of an acceptance/defusion intervention in reducing experimentally induced generalized avoidance. After the formation of two 6‐member equivalence classes, 23 participants underwent differential conditioning with two elements from each class: A1 and B1 were paired with mild electric shock, whereas A2 and B2 were paired with earning points. Participants learned to produce avoidance and approach responses to these respective stimuli and subsequently showed transfer of functions to non‐directly conditioned equivalent stimuli from Class 1 (i.e., D1 and F1 evoked avoidance responses) and Class 2 (i.e., D2 and F2 evoked approach responses). Participants were then randomly assigned to either a motivational protocol (MOT) in which approaching previously avoided stimuli was given a general value, or to a defusion protocol (DEF) in which defusion (a component of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) was trained while approaching previously avoided stimuli was connected to personally meaningful examples. A post‐hoc control group (CMOT) was conducted with 16 participants to control for differences in protocol length between the former two groups. All participants in the DEF group showed a complete suppression of avoidance responding in the presence of Class 1 stimuli (A1–F1 and additional novel stimuli in relation to them), as compared to 40% of participants in the MOT condition and 20% in the CMOT condition. The acceptance/defusion protocol eliminated experimentally induced avoidance responding even for stimuli that elicited autonomic fear responses.

The effects of earning and losing tokens on the disruptive behavior of 12 first‐grade students were evaluated under symmetrical contingencies of earn and loss. Both contingencies produced decreases in disruptive behavior. For some participants, more consistent decreases were observed during the loss contingency. In addition, participants generally earned or kept more tokens during the loss contingency. When offered a choice of contingencies, most participants preferred the loss contingency. The results showed some consistency with behavioral economic principles of loss aversion and the endowment effect.

Continuous and discontinuous data‐collection methods were compared in the context of discrete‐trial programming. Archival data sets were analyzed using trial sampling (1st 5 trials, 1st 3 trials, and 1st trial only) and session sampling (every other session, every 3rd session, and every 5th session). Results showed that trial sampling systematically underestimated the number of sessions and days to mastery and overestimated the number of sessions and days to the 1st independent response. Session sampling systematically overestimated both sessions and days to mastery and sessions and days to the 1st independent response. A time‐savings analysis was included to evaluate empirically how much time would be saved by using each sampling method. Results suggested that data sampling would produce relatively minimal time savings.

Resurgence of problem behavior following the discontinuation of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) may be prevented by response‐independent reinforcer delivery. In basic research, response‐independent reinforcer delivery following DRA prevented resurgence of the initially reinforced response and maintained alternative responding (Lieving & Lattal, 2003, Experiment 3). We evaluated the generality of these results by assessing if fixed‐time (FT) reinforcer delivery following DRA would prevent resurgence of problem behavior and maintain appropriate behavior with 4 children with disabilities. For all participants, extinction following DRA produced resurgence of previously reinforced problem behavior and reduced appropriate requests, but FT reinforcer delivery following DRA mitigated resurgence of problem behavior and maintained appropriate requests.

The present study examined the social foraging of rats in an open arena. The relative quantity of food varied across two food sources, or “patches.” Five food quantity ratios (1:1, 1:2, 1:8, 8:1, 2:1) were presented in a series of 30‐min sessions. Ratios varied randomly across 6‐min components within sessions (Phase 1), or in a consistent order across sessions (Phase 2). Group and individual preferences were well described by the ideal free distribution and the generalized matching law, respectively, with evidence of undermatching at both group and individual levels. Sensitivity of individual and collective behavior to the relative quantities of food was higher in Phase 2 than in Phase 1. Competitiveness rankings, assessed before and after experimental sessions by delivering food in rapid succession from a single feeder, was positively related to sensitivity values in Phase 1, but less consistently so in Phase 2. This study illustrates a promising experimental method for investigating foraging in a social context.

When the overall magnitude of reinforcement is matched between 2 alternative work schedules, some students prefer to complete all of their work for continuous access to a reinforcer (continuous work) rather than distributed access to a reinforcer while they work (discontinuous work). We evaluated a student's preference for continuous work by manipulating the overall magnitude of reinforcement associated with continuous work. Preference for continuous work persisted despite a 20% decrease in reinforcer magnitude; however, a 40% decrease in reinforcer magnitude produced a shift in preference to discontinuous work.

Despite a large body of research demonstrating that generalization to novel stimuli can be produced by training sufficient exemplars, the methods by which exemplars can be trained remain unclear. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate 2 methods, serial and concurrent presentation of stimuli, to train sufficient exemplars. Five preschool children with developmental delays were taught to identify letters or letter sounds using serial and concurrent presentation. Generalization to untrained exemplars was evaluated for targets trained using each method. Participants reached the mastery criterion in fewer training sessions, on average, using the concurrent method of presentation than the serial method, and the concurrent method also resulted in greater generalization to untrained exemplars. Video Methods