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| International Symposium - Studies of Behavioral History |
| Tuesday, May 30, 2006 |
| 10:30 AM–11:50 AM |
| Hong Kong |
| Area: EAB; Domain: Basic Research |
| Chair: Hiroto Okouchi (Osaka Kyoiku University) |
| Abstract: Recently, the experimental analysis of behavior has paid attention to the effects of historical contingencies on current behavior. The present symposium has four presentations concerning this growing area of research. Each of the presentations will discuss conceptual issues on behavioral history effects bibliographically, will explore of the methods used to examine behavioral history effects, will present the results of experiments on remote history effects, or will present interactions between behavioral history and satiation level on the current behavior. |
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| Considerations in the Analysis of Behavioral History. |
| KENNON A. LATTAL (West Virginia University) |
| Abstract: Behavioral history may defined as a functional relation between some past performance and the organism's current behavior. This paper will explore of the methods used to examine behavioral history effects, their strengths and their limitations. The most useful methods involve direct experimental comparisons of the effects of two or more different histories during a subsequent common set of conditions. The interpretations made of the results of such experiments bear on the very nature of behavioral history, which has been conceptualized as either a hypothetical construct or an intervening variable. The implications of either conceptualization leads to different conclusions about the nature of behavioral history. |
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| Remote History Effects in Humans. |
| HIROTO OKOUCHI (Osaka Kyoiku University) |
| Abstract: One group of undergraduates responded under a fixed-ratio (FR) 25 schedule and a second group responded under a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) 5-s schedule (first history phase). The both groups of subjects secondly exposed to a differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior (DRO) 5-s schedule (second history phase) and finally to fixed-interval (FI) 5-s (Experiment 1), variable-interval (VI) 5-s (Experiment 2), extinction, FR, and DRL (Experiment 3) schedules (history testing phase). Response rates under the VI, extinction, and FR schedules in the history-testing phase were higher for subjects with a history of FR schedule than for subjects with a DRL history. Such a difference by remote histories was not observed when the FI and DRL schedules were in effect during the testing. |
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| Reinforcement History, Satiation, and Behavioral Sensitivity. |
| RAQUEL ALO (West Virginia University), Josele Abreu-Rodrigues (Universidade de Brasilia) |
| Abstract: To investigate the effects of reinforcement history and satiation level on behavioral sensitivity, pigeons were exposed, during the Baseline 1 (BL1), Test of Sensitivity 1 (TS1), and Baseline 2 (BL2), to a mult FR DRL schedule. The maximal food consumption was determined during BL1. During the TS1, subjects received either 100% or 20% of the maximal consumption, before sessions. In the Test of Sensitivity 2 (TS2), the satiation procedure was repeated but a mult FI FI schedule was in effect. When the multiple schedule was not changed (TS1), response rates in the FR component were more sensitive to manipulations in the satiation level than DRL rates. When the schedule was altered (TS2), FR rates were sensitive to such alteration only under the greatest level of satiation, while DRL rates were sensitive in both levels. That is, when the reinforcement history produced low rates, stimulus control was weakened in spite of the level of satiation; the occurrence of high rates, on the other hand, favored the development of control by other stimuli of the new contingency. In summary, the effects of manipulations in the level of satiation were altered by the reinforcement history. |
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| Behavioral History: Reflections on a Classification Model. |
| SERGIO DIAS CIRINO (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), Andre Luiz Frietas Dias (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), Paulo Guerra Soares (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), Carlos Cancado (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais) |
| Abstract: Tatham & Wanchisen (1998) suggest the following three attributes to “identify and classify” Behavioral History studies: 1) the research design must permit assessment of the effects of a prior experimental condition on a subsequent one; 2) demonstrate either permanent or short-lived effects and 3) produce effects that are observable in ongoing behavior or that may be unobservable until revealed by additional manipulations. In order to test the utility of such attributes, an analysis of articles’ abstracts containing the word “history” in title, abstract and/or in key-words, published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior from 1992 to 2004, has been conducted. Results demonstrate that the criteria are useful in some dimensions, although others have problems. The second attribute, for example – the presence, among the results, of either permanent or short-lived effects – seems to be not so critical to “identify and classify” Behavioral History researches. Tatham and Wanchisen ‘s classifying attempt establishes an occasion to move on in theoretical issues concearning Behavioral History. |
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