Motivating operations as contexts for operant discrimination training and testing.

Two groups of mice were exposed to stimulus discrimination training and testing under different motivational conditions to study interactions between motivating operations (MOs) during initial discrimination training and MOs when performance is tested following training. One group received all discrimination training sessions under 24-h food deprivation while the other received all sessions under 0-h food deprivation. The number of responses allowed during discrimination training sessions was limited such that the two groups experienced the same number of response-outcome contingencies.

Constructs, Events, and Acceptance and Commitment Training.

The present article considers acceptance and commitment training (ACT) from the perspective of interbehavioral psychology. Specifically, J. R.

Relations between Description and Experimentation in the Metacontingency Enterprise: An Interbehavioral Analysis.

Despite extensive theoretical development, there is a lack of consensus in the metacontingency enterprise on the extent to which current metacontingency constructs describe experimental happenings. The purpose of this article is to provide an interbehavioral analysis of the metacontingency enterprise that examines relations between description and experimentation in order to facilitate research on cultural selection occurring through metacontingencies. In particular, this article considers how stimulus functions of descriptions of metacontingency constructs participate in metacontingency experiments in terms of specificity, types of analysis, levels of analysis, and procedures.

Direct Instruction of Absolute Pitch Using the Theremin as a Musical Instrument and Experimental Apparatus.

Direct Instruction (DI) is a method of education that has historically been applied to improve academic behaviors. Though DI has a modest history of teaching musical literacy skills, its application in teaching music performance skills has been limited. This article presents two methods derived from DI principles to teach the advanced musical skill of absolute pitch using the theremin as a unique musical instrument and experimental apparatus.

The Will to Fight: Aversion-Induced Aggression and the Role of Motivation in Intergroup Conflicts.

Aggressive behavior is a source of many significant human problems, most notably the catastrophic loss of life and resources that can result from violent conflicts between groups. Aggressive behavior is particularly likely to arise from aversive conditions that function as motivating operations (MOs) that establish the stimulation produced by aggressive acts as reinforcing. We describe the behavior that arises from these circumstances as aversion-induced aggression (AIA) and argue that the MOs associated with AIA are important factors in initiating and sustaining violent conflicts between groups.

Interactions between the effects of food and water motivating operations on food- and water-reinforced responding in mice.

Two experiments examined interactions between the effects of food and water motivating operations (MOs) on the food- and water-reinforced operant behavior of mice. In Experiment 1, mice responded for sucrose pellets and then water reinforcement under four different MOs: food deprivation, water deprivation, concurrent food and water deprivation, and no deprivation. The most responding for pellets occurred under food deprivation and the most responding for water occurred under water deprivation.

Interbehavioral psychology and the behavior systems framework: A brief reply.

The present commentary considers a paper by Silva, Silva, and Machado (2019) published in this special issue, which describes some relations between Behavior Systems Theory and Interbehavioral Psychology. In particular, the systems aspects, field orientation, and role of experimentation in both Behavior Systems Theory and Interbehavioral Psychology are discussed. Similarities and differences among the two perspectives are highlighted, and misconceptions about Interbehavioral Psychology are addressed.

Predicting the Effects of Interventions: A Tutorial on the Disequilibrium Model.

The disequilibrium approach to reinforcement and punishment, derived from the probability-differential hypothesis and response deprivation hypothesis, provides a number of potentially useful mathematical models for practitioners. The disequilibrium approach and its accompanying models have proven effective in the prediction and control of behavior, yet they have not been fully espoused and integrated into clinical practice. The purpose of this tutorial is to detail the disequilibrium approach and adapt its mathematical models for use as a tool in applied settings.

Evaluation of the behavioral characteristics of the mdx mouse model of duchenne muscular dystrophy through operant conditioning procedures.

The mdx mouse is an important nonhuman model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) research. Characterizing the behavioral traits of the strain relative to congenic wild-type (WT) mice may enhance our understanding of the cognitive deficits observed in some humans with DMD and contribute to treatment development and evaluation. In this paper we report the results of a number of experiments comparing the behavior of mdx to WT mice in operant conditioning procedures designed to assess learning and memory.

The Origin and Evolution of the Behavior Analysis Program at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The origins of the Behavior Analysis program at the University of Nevada, Reno by way of a self-capitalized model through its transition to a more typical graduate program is described. Details of the original proposal to establish the program and the funding model are described. Some of the unusual features of the program executed in this way are discussed, along with problems engendered by the model.

A Historical Perspective on the Future of Behavior Science.

Like all natural sciences, behavior science has much to offer toward an understanding of the world. The extent to which the promise of behavior science is realized, though, depends upon the extent to which we keep what we know before us. This paper considers fundamental concepts in behavior science, including the concepts of behavior, stimulation, setting conditions, and language.

There's a Man Goin' Round Taking Names.

This commentary addresses the two basic premises of the argument made by Dixon et al (2015) concerning quality metrics for behavior analytic graduate training programs. Taken together, these premises assert that the practice of behavior analysis will be more effective if practitioners are research savvy and that becoming research savvy is more likely to occur in a circumstance in which research is ongoing. I support both of these assumptions, the former by examining the impact of group circumstances on values, and the latter by considering the repertorial elements likely to be established under conditions of contingency shaping.

The effect of the magnitude of the food deprivation motivating operation on free operant preference in mice.

A number of recent studies have demonstrated that organisms prefer stimuli correlated with food under high deprivation conditions over stimuli correlated with food under low deprivation conditions. The purpose of the present study was to extend the literature on this phenomenon by testing for preference under extinction conditions, testing for preference at baseline, employing a free operant preference test, and using mice as subjects. Our results appear to support the existing literature in that most subjects preferred a stimulus correlated with food under high deprivation conditions in the post-training preference test.

Understanding observational learning: an interbehavioral approach.

Observational learning is an important area in the field of psychology and behavior science more generally. Given this, it is essential that behavior analysts articulate a sound theory of how behavior change occurs through observation. This paper begins with an overview of seminal research in the area of observational learning, followed by a consideration of common behavior analytic conceptualizations of these findings.

Backward conditioning of tumor necrosis factor-α in a single trial: changing intervals between exposures to lipopolysaccharide and saccharin taste.

The current study examined the effect of backward conditioning with three different time intervals between exposures to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as the unconditioned stimulus (US) and saccharin taste in water as the potential conditioned stimulus (CS). Forty-eight naïve female BALB/c mice at three months of age served as subjects, divided into six groups. Four groups were assigned to Experiment 1 for the tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) measure, and the remaining two groups were used in Experiment 2 to measure taste aversion behavior.

Video imaging system for automated shaping and analysis of complex locomotory behavior.

Although many observational technologies have been developed for the study of behavior, most of these technologies have suffered from the inability to engender highly reproducible behaviors that can be observed and modified. We have developed ACROBAT (Automated Control in Real-Time of Operant Behavior and Training), a video imaging system and associated computer algorithms that allow the fully automated shaping and analysis of complex locomotory behaviors. While this operant conditioning system is particularly useful for measuring the acquisition and maintenance of complex topographies, it also provides a more general and user friendly platform on which to develop novel paradigms for the study of learning and memory in animals.

Invited commentary on animal models in psychiatry: animal models of non-conventional human behavior.

Conventional behavior, of which linguistic behavior is the principal variety, is identified as responses having formal properties that are not determined by the natural properties of stimulus objects, but instead by properties attributed to those objects under the auspices of particular groups. Given the ubiquity of this type of behavior in the repertoires of human beings and its complete absence in those of non-humans, the argument is made that animal models of human disorders, in which disturbances of conventional behaviors constitute defining features, are not sufficiently analogous to these conditions in humans to be pursued with good result. Because conventional behavior of the linguistic type is ubiquitous in the repertoires of normally developed human adults, it is suggested that the behavior of pre-verbal infants and/or non-verbal persons is preferable to that of adults as the phenomenal source for the construction of animal models of human psychological events.

An Analog Study of First Language Dominance and Interference over Second Language.

The purpose of this study was to design a model for "first language" dominance over "second language" performance and the interference of one language over the other. Two sets of equivalence relations showing a common element (i.e.