William Timberlake’s legacy of innovation

Bowers, Robert Ian; Domjan, Michael; Killeen, Peter R.

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2019.103991

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…There is a complementary story to be told of abience, the tendency to avoid a situation. Fanselow and colleagues have applied a behavior systems approach to identifying a series of behavioral modules in which different defensive responses are primed as a function of predator immanence (Fanselow, 1994(Fanselow, , 1997Fanselow et al, 2019;Fanselow & Lester, 1988), just as Timberlake did for adient responses (Bowers et al, 2019). Denny (1971Denny ( , 1976 has shown that the ability to approach a safe environment, and the amount of time rats are allowed to relax in it after escape or avoidance of shock, significantly affects their performance, consistent with Anger's (1963) theory of avoidance (approach to cues of safety).…”

Section: Directions To the Goalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When conditions make one state more attractive than another, animals approach it. This is the core of Timberlake's behavioral systems theory, as well as Thorndike's (Bowers et al, 2019) and Premack's (Killeen, 2014a). In the natural environment there are many signals that make one state more attractive than another (Killeen, 2019b).…”

Section: App En D Ix B: Pausing On Ratio Schedulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In all cases animals approach stimuli and responses that are more reinforcing than are afforded by the current module. Timberlake's theories carry behavioral analysis into a broader ecological framework (Bowers et al, 2019; Cabrera et al, 2019) while connecting it to a more fundamental theoretical understanding of behavior (Silva et al, 2019). They carry MPR out of the experimental chamber with its minimal set of affordances to behavior at large, where the modes condition the salience of stimuli, the modules provide the repertoire of operants that are available, and where the reinforcers are not pellets but action patterns higher on a probability hierarchy.…”

Section: Classic Schedulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Theory of reinforcement schedules

Killeen

2023

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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The three principles of reinforcement are (1) events such as incentives and reinforcers increase the activity of an organism; (2) that activity is bounded by competition from other responses; and (3) animals approach incentives and their signs, guided by their temporal and physical conditions, together called the “contingencies of reinforcement.” Mathematical models of each of these principles comprised mathematical principles of reinforcement (MPR; Killeen, 1994). Over the ensuing decades, MPR was extended to new experimental contexts. This article reviews the basic theory and its extensions to satiation, warm‐up, extinction, sign tracking, pausing, and sequential control in progressive‐ratio and multiple schedules. In the latter cases, a single equation balancing target and competing responses governs behavioral contrast and behavioral momentum. Momentum is intrinsic in the fundamental equations, as behavior unspools more slowly from highly aroused responses conditioned by higher rates of incitement than it does from responses from leaner contexts. Habits are responses that have accrued substantial behavioral momentum. Operant responses, being predictors of reinforcement, are approached by making them: The sight and feel of a paw on a lever is approached by placing paw on lever, as attempted for any sign of reinforcement. Behavior in concurrent schedules is governed by approach to momentarily richer patches (melioration). Applications of MPR in behavioral pharmacology and delay discounting are noted.

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