Observing Behavior: Effects of Rate and Magnitude of Primary Reinforcement

Shahan, Timothy A.

doi:10.1901/jeab.2002.78-161

Cited by 30 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The initial increases in observing obtained with increases in the response requirement for ethanol parallel those recently obtained under similar conditions with rats responding for food (Shahan 2002b). Lieberman (1972) also obtained a similar result in an observing-response procedure with monkeys responding for sucrose.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…decreases in rate of drug delivery) may appear to call into question the notion that observing is maintained by conditioned reinforcement. However, Shahan (2002b) showed that the initial increases in observing with increases in price of a primary reinforcer likely result from competition between observing and behavior related to the primary reinforcer (e.g. primary reinforcer responding, hopper related behavior, post-ingestive behavior; cf.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, conclusions about changes in the conditioned reinforcing effects of drug stimuli based on changes in observing must be made cautiously when response requirement for the drug is varied. Other methods of increasing the price of food (decreasing the magnitude or decreasing the rate of response-independent reinforcer deliveries) in Shahan (2002b) produced monotonic decreases in observing. Future research will determine if similar results are obtained with a drug reinforcer when price is varied in these other ways.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stimuli produced by observing responses make rats' ethanol self-administration more resistant to price increases

Shahan

2003

Psychopharmacology

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stimuli produced by observing responses make rats' ethanol self-administration more resistant to price increases

Shahan

2003

Psychopharmacology

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“…Shahan (2002) examined the effects of variations in rate of primary reinforcement on observing- Fig. 1.…”

Section: Behavioral Momentum Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This assumption cannot be supported directly because attending is measurable only by inference from a model. However, indirect support comes from research on observing behavior, which is widely construed as an overt, measurable expression of attending and which was related to reinforcement and disruption in the same way as suggested by Equation 4 (Shahan, 2002;Shahan et al, 2003).…”

Section: Core Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Theory of Attending and Reinforcement in Conditional Discriminations

Nevin¹,

Davison²,

Shahan³

2005

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

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A model of conditional discrimination performance (Davison & Nevin, 1999) is combined with the notion that unmeasured attending to the sample and comparison stimuli, in the steady state and during disruption, depends on reinforcement in the same way as predicted for overt free-operant responding by behavioral momentum theory (Nevin & Grace, 2000). The rate of observing behavior, a measurable accompaniment of attending, is well described by an equation for steady-state responding derived from momentum theory, and the resistance to change of observing conforms to predictions of momentum theory, supporting a key assumption of the model. When probabilities of attending are less than 1.0, the model accounts for some aspects of conditional-discrimination performance that posed problems for the Davison-Nevin model: (a) the effects of differential reinforcement on the allocation of responses to the comparison stimuli and on accuracy in several matching-to-sample and signal-detection tasks where the differences between the stimuli or responses were varied across conditions, (b) the effects of overall reinforcer rate on the asymptotic level and resistance to change of both response rate and accuracy of matching to sample in multiple schedules, and (c) the effects of fixed-ratio reinforcement on accuracy. Some tests and extensions of the model are suggested, and the role of unmeasured events in behavior theory is considered.Key words: attending, behavioral momentum, conditional discrimination, matching to sample, signal detection, observing behavior _______________________________________________________________________________In order for stimuli to control behavior, organisms must attend to them. Dinsmoor (1985) suggested that effective stimulus control depends on contact with the relevant stimuli via overt observing behavior, and that for a complete understanding ''. . . we are obliged to consider analogous [to observing] processes . . . commonly known as attention. The processes involved in attention are not as readily accessible to observation as the more peripheral adjustments, but it is my hope and my working hypothesis that they obey similar principles.'' (p. 365). Although attention is usually construed as a cognitive process, we view attending as unmeasured (possibly covert) operant behavior that accompanies measurable observing. Attending, we suggest, is selected and strengthened by the reinforcing consequences of overt discriminated operant behavior that would be less frequently reinforced in the absence of attending. Following Dinsmoor, we assume that the unmeasured behavior of attending to discriminative stimuli is related to the rates of reinforcement correlated with those stimuli in the same way as measured free-operant response rate.In this paper, we develop a model of attending that parallels a version of behavioral momentum theory for free-operant responding and incorporate it into a general account of discriminated operant behavior (Davison & Nevin, 1999). We begin by reviewing behavioral momentum theo...

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Quantifying nicotine's value‐enhancement effect using a behavioral economic approach

Cassidy

Dallery

2014

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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Nicotine increases the value of some reinforcing stimuli, and this effect may contribute to nicotine's widespread abuse. We aimed to quantify this effect using a behavioral economic analysis. Six Long- Evans rats were exposed to a modified observing response procedure. In this procedure, presses to one lever resulted either in food according to a variable-interval 15 second schedule or extinction; presses to a second, observing lever illuminated stimuli correlated with the schedule in effect on the food/extinction lever (i.e., conditioned reinforcers). The FR requirement on the observing lever increased across sessions. The number of presentations of the conditioned reinforcers was plotted as a function of FR value to generate a demand curve. Nicotine was then administered at a dose of 0.3 mg/kg. All demand curves were fitted to the exponential demand equation and a parameter reflecting reinforcer value was evaluated. Nicotine increased the value of the conditioned reinforcers as measured by this equation; nicotine also increased responding on the food/extinction lever. This analysis demonstrates that nicotine increases the value of conditioned reinforcers under certain conditions. The current procedure allows for a novel method of analyzing demand for conditioned reinforcers.

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Observing Behavior: Effects of Rate and Magnitude of Primary Reinforcement

Cited by 30 publications

References 28 publications

Stimuli produced by observing responses make rats' ethanol self-administration more resistant to price increases

Stimuli produced by observing responses make rats' ethanol self-administration more resistant to price increases

A Theory of Attending and Reinforcement in Conditional Discriminations

Quantifying nicotine's value‐enhancement effect using a behavioral economic approach

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