Contributions to drug abuse research of Steven R. Goldberg’s behavioral analysis of stimulus-stimulus contingencies

Abstract

By the mid-1960s, the concept that drugs can function as reinforcing stimuli through response-reinforcer contingencies had created a paradigm shift in drug abuse science. Steve Goldberg's first several publications focused instead on stimulus-stimulus contingencies (respondent conditioning) in examining Abraham Wikler's two-factor hypothesis of relapse involving conditioned withdrawal and reinforcing effects of drugs. Goldberg provided a compelling demonstration that histories of contingencies among stimuli could produce lasting withdrawal reactions in primates formerly dependent on opioids. Other studies conducted by Goldberg extended the analysis of effects of stimulus-stimulus contingencies on behavior maintained by opioid reinforcing effects and showed that withdrawal-inducing antagonist administration can produce conditioned increases in self-administration. Subsequent studies of the effects of stimuli associated with cocaine injection under second-order schedules showed that the maintenance of behavior with drug injections was in most important aspects similar to the maintenance of behavior with more conventional reinforcers when the behavior-disrupting pharmacological effects of the drugs were minimized. Studies on second-order schedules demonstrated a wide array of conditions under which behavior could be maintained by drug injection and further influenced by stimulus-stimulus contingencies. These schedules present opportunities to produce in the laboratory complex situations involving response- and stimulus-stimulus contingencies, which go beyond simplistic pairings of stimuli and more closely approximate those found with human drug abusers. A focus on the response- and stimulus-stimulus contingencies, and resulting quantifiable changes in objective and quantifiable behavioral endpoints exemplified by the studies by Steve Goldberg, remains the most promising way forward for studying problems of drug dependence.

Effects of rat strain and method of inducing ethanol drinking on Pavlovian-Instrumental-Transfer with ethanol-paired conditioned stimuli

“…Stimuli paired with alcohol or drug delivery can also be used in second-order schedules in which completion of one schedule results in stimulus presentation and serves as a unit of responding that is reinforced under another schedule. When such stimuli are presented contingently under second-order schedules, responding is increased over when these stimuli are not presented (Goldberg, Schindler, & Lamb, 1990;Katz, 2016;Schindler, Panlilio, & Goldberg, 2002). Further, again delivering these stimuli, contingent upon meeting the schedule requirements, reinvigorates responding that has decreased to low levels due to extinction (Kelleher & Goldberg, 1977).…”

“…Increases in responding can frequently be observed when responding is in extinction (Corbit & Janak, 2007, 2016Glasner, Overmier, & Balleine, 2005;Krank, 2003;Krank, O'Neill, Squarey, & Jacob, 2008;Lamb, Ginsburg, & Schindler, 2016, experiment 3;LeBlanc, Ostlund, & Maidment, 2012;Milton et al, 2012; but see Lamb, Schindler, et al, 2016, experiment 1;Kruzich, Congleton, & See, 2001;LeBlanc et al, 2012). However, these increases may be attributable to the CS signaling the potential availability of drug or ethanol, i.e., the informational value of the CS.…”