Operant Conditioning The Hiatus between Theory and Practice in Clinical Psychology

An effective procedure for changing food preferences in 5–7-year-old children

“…The 'symbolic' context of reward delivery was, thus, entirely positive and could not easily be construed as indicating that eating the foods was a low-value activity. This suggests that statements about negative (or positive) effects of rewarding food consumption, including preferences, must take into account how the child construes the contingency (Lowe, 1979(Lowe, , 1983Lowe et al 1987).…”

“…Bentall et al 1985;Lowe & Horne, 1985;Bentall & Lowe, 1987;Catania et al 1989Catania et al , 1990Hayes, 1989;Dugdale & Lowe, 1990), (2) approaches in clinical psychology which have employed verbal and cognitive procedures to change behaviour (e.g. Lowe & Higson, 1983;Woods & Lowe, 1986;Lowe et al 1987;Meichenbaum, 1990;Whitman, 1990), (3) experimental investigations which employ 'metacognitive' training to instruct children in techniques of self-monitoring and self-regulation (Lowe & Higson, 1981;Brown & Campione, 1984;Pressley et al 1987), (4) studies of 'correspondence' training in which verbal commitments to carry out a particular behaviour are rewarded only if followed by the announced behaviour; for example, a child's statement that 'Tomorrow I will brush my teeth' would qualify for a reward only if followed by the toothbrushing (Baer et al 1985;Deacon & Konarski, 1987). To date, little research on children's food preferences has incorporated the findings from these different research approaches, whether in analysing the development of children's eating patterns or in changing them.…”

Errorless Learning in the Rehabilitation of Memory Impairment: A Critical Review

“…We might argue that this is, in fact, a better learning paradigm than "pure" EL. This leads us to ask whether genuinely errorless learning is even possible in verbally able humans, in just the same way that Lowe et al (1987) once asked if a verbally able human had ever been exposed to a naked reinforcer-that is, a reinforcing stimulus that directly maintains or increases a behavior without interpretation through the verbal processing system of the participant.…”

“…Terrace based his conclusions on discrimination experiments with animals, while Skinner's programmed learning experiments were conducted with verbally able humans. A host of studies since that time (Lowe 1979;Lowe et al 1987) have shown that the ability to use language to internally represent the environment, known as rule-governed behavior (Skinner and Ferster 1957), leads to important differences in responding to external stimuli.…”

Effects of a peer modelling and rewards-based intervention to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in children

“…The aim here was to establish a peer group culture that actively supported (ie by supplying further models and rewards of its own) the eating of fruit and vegetables. Also, because there is evidence to indicate that individuals' own verbalisations and rules can give rise to behaviour patterns that are very resistant to change (Lowe, 1979(Lowe, , 1983Lowe et al, 1987;Catania et al, 1989), programme materials were designed specifically to encourage children to refer to fruit and vegetables in ways that would help maintain their consumption. Thus, for example, in the peer modelling video, the Food Dudes repeatedly illustrated, and/or commented on, both the immediate and long-term positive consequences of eating fruit and vegetables (eg by referring to the nice taste of these foods, how enjoyable it is to eat them, and how eating them leads to success and health).…”