The Role of Observing and Attention in Establishing Stimulus Control

Abstract

Early theorists (Skinner, Spence) interpreted discrimination learning in terms of the strengthening of the response to one stimulus and its weakening to the other. But this analysis does not account for the increasing independence of the two performances as training continues or for increases in control by dimensions of a stimulus other than the one used in training. Correlation of stimuli with different densities of reinforcement produces an increase in the behavior necessary to observe them, and greater observing of and attending to the relevant stimuli may account for the increase in control by these stimuli. The observing analysis also encompasses errorless training, and the selective nature of observing explains the feature-positive effect and the relatively shallow gradients of generalization generated by negative discriminative stimuli. The effectiveness of the observing analysis in handling these special cases adds to the converging lines of evidence supporting its integrative power and thus its validity.

Analyzing the Stimulus Control Acquisition in Simple Discrimination Tasks through Eye Movement

“…The results demonstrated that the most frequently observed stimuli were also the ones that were the most often chosen. Based on results that are similar to those reported by Schroeder (e.g., Perez, Endemann, Pessôa, & Tomanari, 2015;Pessôa, Huziwara, Perez, Endeman, & Tomanari, 2009), it is possible that recording eye movements may provide a measure of the control exerted by each of the stimuli when they are presented in situations of simple simultaneous discrimination (Dinsmoor, 1985). According to Serna and Carlin (2001), discrimination acquisition depends on directing students' attention to the relevant aspects of the task.…”

“…Thus, considering that effective observation behavior can be a prerequisite for learning stimulus discriminative functions (Dinsmoor, 1985;Schroeder, 1997), the differences in the time spent observing the stimuli during simultaneous and successive training procedures may refl ect differences in the establishment of stimulus control, as previously suggested (Campos et al, 2011;Debert, 2003;Debert et al, 2007). Although the present results are limited due to the number of participants and the absence of statistical analysis, recording eye movement behavior is suggested as a useful tool for investigating differences in the stimulus control relations that are established during various discriminative training procedures.…”

Effects of methylphenidate on working memory in pigeons

“…When a bird pecks the sample stimulus in this procedure and the pecks function as observing responses, it is attending to it (Dinsmoor, 1985). Therefore, attentional impairments can be generated by reducing the number of responses a bird must make to the sample stimulus before the delay begins (Roberts, 1972).…”

Prática controlada: medidas continuadas e produção de evidências empíricas em terapias analítico-comportamentais

“…Eu ainda leio avidamente, mas isso é de pouco auxílio prático direto. Nenhum destes achados deveria surpreender, dadas as inúmeras possibilidades de falhas e equívocos na discriminação dos controles atuantes nas contingências clínicas enquanto instâncias do comportamento humano, tanto no que diz respeito ao comportamento verbalmente governado quanto no que diz respeito ao controle direto da contingência (Braam & Malott, 1990;Catania, Matthews & Shimoff, 1982;Dinsmoor, 1985;Galizio, 1979;Lowenkron, 1998;Shull, 1995;Skinner, 1957;Torgrud & Holborn, 1990).…”

“…Bem mais recentemente no tempo, Herbert, Lilienfeld, Lohr, Montgomery, O"Donohue, Rosen et al (2000) demonstraram que os resultados do tratamento conhecido como Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), propalado como um tratamento eficaz para o estresse pós-traumático, fobias, pânico e ansiedade, não deve seus resultados favoráveis aos movimentos oculares guiados pelo terapeuta enquanto revive encobertamente o evento traumático, seu aspecto mais saliente, mas provavelmente à já conhecida dessensibilização encoberta, ou seja, a habituação provocada pela exposição encoberta repetida ao evento traumático. Ambos os relatos trazem à lembrança a importante demonstração experimental de Dinsmoor (1985), a de que a atenção é controlada pelos estímulos relacionados ao reforçamento, ignorando o organismo aqueles relacionados à extinção. Desta forma, os sucessos tendem a reforçar as convicções clínicas do profissional e os insucessos tendem a ser ignorados ou subscritos a causas extra-tratamento ou a "problemas do cliente" (Hayes, Barlow & Nelson-Gray, 1999 Por outro lado, é exatamente o quadro de conceitual proporcionado pela elaboração teórica (verbal) da realidade que possibilita ao cientista ou clínico discriminar, num primeiro momento, e analisar racionalmente, num segundo, quaisquer "evidências", empíricas ou não, que possam ser atribuíveis àquela parcela da realidade.…”