Acta Comportamentalia

Obituario en memoria de Juan Robinson

The acquisition of lever-pressing by rats under degraded conditions of conditioned reinforcement

Existen pocos estudios sobre la adquisición de nuevas respuestas bajo condiciones degradadas de reforzamiento condicionado. En este trabajo se estudió la adquisición y el posterior mantenimiento de una nueva respuesta con 21 ratas expuestas directamente a un programa constante intervalo al azar 7.5 s para obtener un estímulo de 1 s por presionar una palanca. Concurrentemente el mismo estímulo y una bolita de comida se presentaron independientemente de la respuesta a través de las sesiones de 32 minutos conforme a un programa tiempo fijo 64 s. Para cada tres ratas, la separación entre el estímulo y la comida fue de 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 o 32 s en bloques consecutivos de 40 sesiones. Aunque con tasas bajas todas las ratas presionaron la palanca aún con intervalos entre el estímulo y la comida tan largos como 32 s. Las tasas de respuesta fueron progresivamente más bajas conforme se alargó el intervalo entre el estímulo y la comida a la manera de un gradiente de eficacia del reforzador condicionado. Este hallazgo es nuevo en la literatura sobre la adquisición de nuevas respuestas con reforzamiento condicionado.

There are few studies on the acquisition of new responses under degraded conditions of conditioned reinforcement. In this investigation the establishment and subsequent maintenance of a new response was studied with 21 rats directly exposed to a constant random-interval 7.5 s schedule for a 1-s light stimulus for leverpressing. Concurrently, the same stimulus and one food pellet were delivered independently of responding across the entire 32-minute sessions on a fixed-time 64 s schedule. For three rats each the stimulus and the delivery of food were separated by intervals of either 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32 s over consecutive blocks of 40 sessions. Although at low rates all rats lever-pressed even with intervals between the stimulus and food as long as 32 s. Response rates were progressively lower as the stimulus-food interval was lengthened, resembling a gradient of efficacy of conditioned reinforcement. Such finding is new to the literature on the acquisition of new responses with conditioned reinforcement.

Spatiotemporal control and response generalization of lever pressing by rats

Se estudió la distribución temporal de presiones reforzadas nominalmente en una palanca y la ocurrencia de presiones en palancas adyacentes usando dos programas de reforzamiento: intervalo fijo 60 s y tándem reforzamiento diferencial de otras conductas 30 s razón fija 1. Se expuso a tres ratas a cada programa en una cámara experimental que contenía siete palancas. Sólo las presiones en la palanca central (operativa) resultaron en comida. Con el programa de intervalo fijo, las presiones en la palanca operativa y en las palancas cercanas a la operativa aumentaron del inicio al final del intervalo entre reforzadores. Bajo el programa de reforzamiento tándem las presiones en la palanca operativa y en las palancas cercanas a la operativa aumentaron durante los últimos segundos del intervalo entre reforzadores. Con ambos programas de reforzamiento se encontró un gradiente de generalización de la respuesta con un máximo en la palanca operativa que no fue diferente del inicio al final del intervalo entre reforzadores. Las respuestas se entrelazaron en patrones repetitivos consistentes intra sujeto pero diferentes entre sujetos. Se concluyó que el responder generalizado sigue una distribución temporal similar a la que se observa en las respuestas que cumplen con el requisito de reforzamiento.

The temporal distribution of nominally reinforced lever pressing by rats and the occurrence of unreinforced presses on seven adjacent levers were studied using two schedules of reinforcement: a fixed interval 60 s and a tandem differential reinforcement of other behavior 30 s fixed ratio 1. Three rats were exposed to each schedule of reinforcement in an experimental chamber containing seven adjoining levers. Only presses on the central (operative) lever produced food pellets. With the fixed-interval schedule, response rate on the operative lever and in those levers closest to the operative increased across the inter-reinforcement interval in a familiar "scallop". Under the tandem schedule, lever pressing on the operative and the inoperative levers increased during the last seconds of the inter-reinforcement interval. The relative spatial distribution of responses on the seven levers converged on the operative lever with the two schedules and this pattern did not differ from the beginning to the end of the interreinforcer interval. Both operative- and inoperative-lever pressing intertwined in repetitive patterns that were consistent within subjects but differed between subjects. These findings suggest that generalized responding follows a temporal distribution similar to that observed in responding that fulfill the reinforcement criterion.

Formation and maintenance of equivalence classes: a study with elderly participants

Variáveis como a estrutura de treino Comparison-as-node e o arranjo "do simples para o complexo" podem facilitar a formação de classes de equivalência. Além disso, o tamanho das classes pode influenciar na manutenção das relações formadas. Apesar da diversidade de populações estudadas com procedimentos baseados no paradigma de Equivalência de Estímulos, existe ainda uma carência de dados com a população idosa. O objetivo deste estudo foi verificar a formação e a manutenção de classes de estímulos equivalentes de diferentes tamanhos, tendo como participantes idosos entre 60 e 75 anos. Para tanto, foram ensinadas três classes equivalentes, compostas por três (Condição 1) ou seis estímulos (Condição 2). Todos os participantes mostraram a emergência de classes de equivalência. Seis semanas após a fase de formação das classes de equivalência, foi realizado um teste com as relações aprendidas e emergentes. Em geral, os participantes que passaram pela Condição 1 apresentaram porcentagens menores de acertos do que os que passaram pela Condição 2, no teste realizado após seis semanas. Esse desempenho evidenciou que o número de estímulos em uma classe pode ser uma variável que influencia na manutenção das mesmas ao longo do tempo, uma vez que os participantes da condição que aprenderam classes maiores tiveram resultados melhores no teste de manutenção.

Many studies using procedures based on the paradigm of SE have been presented in the literature. The formation of equivalent stimulus classes can be facilitated by the Comparison-as-node structure of train and the "simple to complex" arrangement. Moreover, the size of the classes can influence the maintenance of the relations. Despite the diversity of populations studied with procedures derived from the paradigm of stimulus equivalence, there is still a lack of studies conducted with the elderly population. The aim of the present study was to investigate the formation and maintenance of equivalent classes of different sizes, besides the recovery of possible broken relationships over time. Participants were aged between 60 and 75 years. The procedure consisted of a training relationship of baseline and of a test emergent relations, using the matching-to-sample procedure with the simultaneous model, followed by a test of emerging relations, six weeks later, in order to verify the maintenance of classes formed. The procedure consisted of training and tests with three classes of stimuli composed of three or six stimulus (Condition 1 and Condition 2 respectively). Six weeks after equivalence tests, a maintenance test was conducted with the emerging and learned relations. Three participants showed immediate emergency and five exhibited delayed emergency. All participants showed the emergence of classes of equivalent stimulus. In the maintenance test, participants who were training in Condition 1 showed lower percentages than participants who were exposed to Condition 2. The comparison between two groups showed that the size of the class may be a relevant variable that can influence the maintenance of the class over time, since the participants exposed to the condition with larger classes had better results on the test of maintenance. Most participants from Condition 2 showed accuracy right at the beginning of the test, and therefore, it was not possible to evaluate the recovery of the relations throughout the test conducted six weeks later. This study presents data on the formation and maintenance of equivalence classes with the elderly population. Since there are few studies with this population, it is believed that these results make contributions both to increase knowledge about the generality of the phenomenon of formation of equivalence classes, and for the development of applied research that seek to develop behavioral technology in the educational area and maintenance of educational contents with this population.

An analysis of instructions functions in a free operant procedure with children

Embora haja uma extensa discussão conceitual na Análise do Comportamento sobre a função de instruções, muito poucos estudos empíricos foram conduzidos para investigar esse fenômeno. Teve-se por objetivo investigar se a correspondência ou não correspondência de instruções em relação às condições de reforço em um procedimento de operante-livre alteraria a função dessas instruções sobre o responder de crianças. Participaram do Experimento 1 dez crianças com 8 a 10 anos, distribuídas em dois grupos. Todas participaram, individualmente, de um jogo no qual deveriam buscar pistas escritas que conduziam (ou não) a novas pistas, até encontrarem um vale brinde. No primeiro grupo, foram apresentadas predominantemente pistas que descreviam locais onde havia novas pistas; no segundo grupo, eram apresentadas predominantemente pistas não correspondentes. Em ambos os grupos, as pistas pareceram exercer função alteradora da função de outros estímulos, não exercendo função discriminativa ou motivadora. Do Experimento 2, que tinha por objetivo refinar o controle experimental do Experimento 1, participaram oito crianças de 8 a 10 anos. Observou-se que a função das instruções (alteradora de função) não teve relação com a correspondência das mesmas. Sugere-se que novos estudos que utilizem procedimentos de operante-livre sejam conduzidos para investigar diferentes funções de instruções.

In spite of the wider conceptual discussion among behavior analysts about instructions functions, very few empirical studies have been conducted to support it. And even less empirical studies have been conducted by using free-operant procedure with children. The present study was conducted to verify if the correspondence or non-correspondence of instructions related to reinforcement conditions in a free-operant procedure could alter these instructions' function over the children's responding during a game-format task. Ten children from 8 to 10 years old, divided in two groups, participated in Experiment 1. All children participated individually in a game in which they had to search for written clues that led them (or not) to new clues until a gift voucher was founded. Participants of the first group were predominantly exposed to clues that described places where new clues were hidden (correspondent instructions) while the second group's participants were predominantly exposed to clues which described places where there were no clues (non-correspondent instructions). In both groups, instructions seemed to produce function-altering rather than discriminative or motivating effects. Experiment 2 was conducted to refine experimental control of Experiment 1. Eight children with 8 to 10 years old, divided in two groups, participated in Experiment 2. Procedure was the same as in Experiment 1, except for changes in the clues' searching places. Similar results were obtained in Experiment 2 in which the function-altering effects were produced by instructions in spite of their correspondence or non correspondence to reinforcement conditions (i.e. children responded under control of instructions during all the procedure). A free-operant procedure was used instead of a discrete-trial one, allowing the participants to emit a wider range of responses in the experimental setting. The characteristic of this procedure seems to be more appropriate to investigate the effects produced by instructions over human responding (especially children's) in a broader way. In both experiments, participants responded under control of instructions during the task, showing that instructional control was strong in spite of response-alternatives availability. New studies are necessary to develop more sophisticated and controlled free-operant procedures in the instructional control research area.

Verbal correspondence: the relationship between teacher's verbal and non verbal behavior

Correspondência verbal consiste na relação entre o dizer e o fazer. O presente estudo pretendeu investigar a correspondência entre os comportamentos verbal e não verbal de professores em sala de aula. Participaram do estudo dois professores que lecionavam para uma turma da 6ª série do Ensino Fundamental. Foram filmadas e posteriormente transcritas quatro aulas de um participante e cinco do outro participante. Com base na transcrição, montaram-se questionários que apresentavam cerca de dez situações observadas em sala de aula, cada uma delas seguida de uma pergunta sobre o que o professor faria ou fez naquela situação. Os dados apontaram que os sujeitos emitiram, com maior frequência, relatos correspondentes à situação observada, principalmente para as questões referentes a um comportamento passado. Por se tratar de um estudo em ambiente natural não foi possível abordar os resultados apenas como correspondência ou não entre os comportamentos verbal e não verbal. Foi necessário distinguir entre correspondência topográfica e funcional, bem como entre correspondência total ou parcial, para melhor apreensão da diversidade de casos que se apresentaram.

Verbal correspondence deals with the relationship between what a person says and does. This study aimed to investigate the correspondence between verbal and nonverbal behavior of teachers' classrooms. Two sixth grade teachers participated in the study. Four of the first teacher and five of the second teacher´s classes were filmed and then transcribed. Based on the transcriptions, questionnaires were prepared, which presented approximately ten scenes observed in the classroom, each of them followed by a question about what the teacher would do/had done in that situation. The results showed that the teachers more often than not presented correspondent reports, particularly when the questions were about past behavior. Because the study was in natural environment could not be treated simply as corresponding or non-corresponding verbal and nonbehavior. It was necessary to differentiate between functional and topographical correspondence and between total and partial correspondence, for better understanding of the diversity of cases that were presented.

Applied behavior analysis and training for parents: A review of articles published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis

Por meio de revisão bibliográfica foi feito um levantamento para quantificar os dados dos métodos e para identificar e descrever os procedimentos/estratégias empregados nos programas de capacitação de pais que se basearam em princípios básicos da Análise do Comportamento dos estudos publicados no periódico Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis entre 1968 e 2009. A busca foi feita por meio da base de dados PsycINFO. Foram consultados 36 estudos, descritos em 31 artigos. Para a quantificação dos dados do método foram considerados os dados dos participantes, o tipo de delineamento experimental, o local em que a intervenção foi realizada e outras características dos procedimentos. Os procedimento/estratégias empregados foram agrupados e analisados de acordo com os seguintes princípios da Análise do Comportamento: modelagem, operações estabelecedoras, controle de estímulos e governo por regras. Os resultados permitiram observar grande variação quanto ao método dos estudos revisados, prevalecendo intervenções individuais, com delineamento de pesquisa de sujeito único e com linha de base múltipla. Foram citados com frequência o procedimento/estratégia de modelagem de respostas e os relacionados ao governo por regras, evidenciando o importante papel desses princípios em procedimentos de capacitação.

The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) is one of the oldest journals in behavior analysis. The journal is directed to problems with social relevance, as the investigation of the effects of procedures, techniques and intervention programs in different contexts. Training parents is defined as a way to teach parents some behaviors and strategies that enable them to modify their behavior and interaction with their children, increasing the occurrence of pro-social behaviors. It is considered an effective intervention to a lot of problems, as noncompliance, special health care needs, behavior deficits and development of parental skills. The present work intended to review studies published in JABA from 1968 to 2009 about training parents, quantifying data from the methods of the studies, and identifying the procedures/strategies used in training parents programs based on principles of behavior analysis. A survey of articles about training parents published by JABA was made in PsyINFO database. Exclusion criteria referred to articles that don't characterize empirical researches, were unrelated to directed parent training, and were related to training of others peoples, except the parents. The study reviewed 31 articles, with descriptions of 36 studies. All studies were read in full and their data were systematized in a data bank, focusing participants' information's, settings in which the intervention was realized, experimental design, type of intervention used and principals' procedures/strategies applied in studies and others characteristics of the procedures. Later, all procedures/ strategies were systematized and analyzed, in according to some of the principles of behavior analysis such as shaping, establishing operations, stimulus control and rule governed behavior. It was observed that the studies reviewed were mostly developed with single case procedures and multiple baseline designs. The studies were conducted most frequently in the participant's home, with parents between 21 to 30 years-old, and children until 3 years-old. The studies more often used procedures/strategies related with shaping, like rehearsal, which complement others procedures, as stimulus control or giving instructions training and rule governed behavior. Others procedures/strategies identified were: token economy, written manuals, time-out and others. Training parents is an important area to apply the principles of Behavior Analysis. Moreover, parents are necessary to modify children´s behavior, to train different skills, to promote health and education, and to prevent problem behavior.

Instances of the therapeutic relationship measures from a categorization tool

A relação terapêutica começou a ser evidenciada pela análise do comportamento quando se percebeu que propiciava - facilitava mudanças clínicas relevantes nos clientes, discutindo-se ser uma condição essencial para a adesão e sucesso do tratamento. A literatura da área presenta que o padrão e a qualidade da relação terapêutica se estabelece, principalmente, nas entrevistas iniciais do tratamento. Com a justificativa de auxiliar os terapeutas em formação a se prepararem para o início da prática clínica, a presente pesquisa buscou descrever, em termos de freqüência, quais são os comportamentos verbais vocais do cliente e do terapeuta mais comuns no início da terapia analítico-comportamental. Três sessões iniciais de duas díades terapeuta-cliente (terapeutas iniciantes) foram transcritas e categorizadas por meio das categorias verbais vocais dos terapeutas e dos clientes a partir do sistema multidimensional para a categorização de comportamentos na relação terapêutica. Observou-se que os terapeutas analisados predominantemente facilitaram o relato dos clientes, e o segundo tipo de intervenção mais utilizado foi "solicitar relatos"; já os clientes predominantemente relataram eventos. Alguns aspectos parecem estar relacionados com o início do tratamento, como a 'solicitação de relatos' fazer parte da coleta de dados e a ausência da categoria 'reprovação de ações ou relatos do cliente', ser próprio de uma audiência não punitiva. Alguns aspectos parecem relacionados com a relação terapeuta - cliente, por exemplo, a categoria dos clientes em 'relatar relações entre eventos' parece aumentar de frequência quando o terapeuta aumentou a frequência da categoria 'solicitar reflexão'. Considerando o objetivo descritivo do presente estudo, sugerem-se mais pesquisas sobre o tema para facilitar uma análise maior sobre aspectos referentes à relação terapêutica.

The therapeutic relationship began to be evidenced by behavior analysis when it was realized that it offered - facilitated clinically relevant changes in customers, arguing to be a prerequisite for adherence and treatment success. The literature shows that the standard and quality of the therapeutic relationship is established in the initial interviews of treatment. This study sought to describe in terms of frequency, which are on verbal voice client and therapist more common in early behavior-analytic therapy. Three initial sessions of therapist- client dyads two (therapists) were transcribed and categorized by means of vocal verbal categories of therapists and clients from the multidimensional system for the categorization of behaviors in the therapeutic relationship. It was observed that therapists analyzed predominantly facilitated the account of customers, and the second type of intervention used was "requesting reports" while customers predominantly reported events. Some aspects seem to be related to the initiation of treatment, such as' request reports' part of data collection and the absence of the category of actions or failure reports from client ', is itself an audience not punitive. Some features seem related to the therapist - client, for example, the category of customers' reporting relationships between events' seems to increase the frequency when the therapist increased the frequency of category 'reflection request. " Considering the purpose of this descriptive study suggest further research on the topic to facilitate further analysis aspects related to the therapeutic relationship.