The professional student program for educational resilience: Enhancing momentary engagement in classwork

Abstract

The Professional Student Program for Educational Resilience (PROSPER) was designed to increase students’ ability to stay momentarily engaged in classwork, thus promoting educational resilience. Participants (N?=?277, 51% male, 74% Irish) from two low-income schools in Dublin, Ireland (School A n?=?158; School B n?=?119), were assessed using the intervention’s theory of change: (1) change in knowledge of how to stay engaged in classwork, (2) subsequent change in momentary engagement in classwork, and (3) subsequent longer-term change in dispositions for engagement (i.e., tendency to enjoy learning). Qualitative results demonstrated that PROSPER facilitated students’ knowledge, momentary engagement, and teachers’ involvement with students. Quantitative analyses uncovered changes in knowledge and momentary engagement for both the higher and lower ability tracks in School A. The results give refined information on how this universal-school based program increased students’ momentary engagement and supported their educational resilience.     

Reversibility of reinforcement between eating and running by schedule changes: A comparison of hypotheses and models

Rats increased eating that produced access to a running-wheel or increased running that produced access to food, depending on which response was potentially deprived, relative to baseline, by the scheduled ratio of responding. Under both schedules, instrumental responding significantly exceeded appropriate baselines of the noncontingent effects of the schedule. The results contradicted the hypothesis that reinforcement is produced by an overall or momentary probability differential between two responses; instead, they supported the condition of response deprivation as a key determinant of reinforcement. Of several recent quantitative models that predict reversibility of reinforcement by schedule changes, only the predictions of the relative response-deprivation model did not differ significantly from the data of either schedule.     

Rate of a maintained operant as a function of temporal position within a session

McSweeney and her colleagues (e.g., McSweeney, Hatfield, & Allen, 1990) have demonstrated reliable, large magnitude rate changes in maintained operants within daily sessions under a wide variety of reinforcement schedules. The present paper examined the role of schedule of reinforcement, reinforcement rate, and total amount of food access in determining those within-session rate changes. When median rates across birds were considered, all procedures resulted in a brief period of an increasing rate, followed by a modest rate loss across the major portion of the session. However, not all individuals exhibited that pattern. When the amount of food access per session was limited by lower reinforcement rates, shorter sessions, or shorter reinforcement durations, the magnitude of the withinsession rate change was reduced from that occurring without those constraints. Additionally, under the conditions that produced strong within-session rate changes, the magnitude of the within-session rate loss was correlated with the bird’s body weight. These effects are consistent with what is typically labeledsatiation.     

Habituation may contribute to within-session decreases in responding under high-rate schedules of reinforcement

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that habituation contributes to within-session decreases in responding. In Experiment 1, rats’ leverpressing was reinforced under a fixed ratio (FR) 4 schedule throughout the baseline sessions. During the dishabituation sessions, the first 21 min and the last 21 min were FR 4; dishabituating events occurred during the middle 3 min. The dishabituating events altered the manner of reinforcer delivery in four different ways. Response rates increased after all dishabituating events. In Experiment 2, rats responded on several FR and variable ratio (VR) schedules. The ratio requirement varied from 3 to 15. Within-session decreases in responding were steeper during FR schedules than during VR schedules. In addition, response rates were well described as linear functions of cumulative number of food pellets eaten within sessions. These results support the habituation hypothesis but do not rule out the possibility that other satiety variables might contribute simultaneously.     

Choice behavior in transition: Development of preference in a free-operant procedure

Twenty acquisition curves were obtained from each of 8 pigeons in a free-operant choice procedure. Every condition began with a phase in which two response keys had equal probabilities of reinforcement, and, as a result, subjects’ responses were divided fairly evenly between the two keys. This was followed by a phase in which one key had a higher probability of reinforcement than the other, and the development of preference was observed. In all but a few cases, response proportions increased for the key with the higher probability of reinforcement. In most conditions, the two probabilities differed by .06, but the actual probabilities varied (from .16 and .10 in one condition to .07 and .01 in another). Development of preference for the key with the higher probability of reinforcement was slower when the ratio of the two reinforcement probabilities was small (.16/.10) than when it was large (.07/.01). This finding is inconsistent with the predictions of several different quantitative models of acquisition, including the kinetic model (Myerson & Miezin, 1980) and the ratio-invariance model (Horner & Staddon, 1987). However, the finding is consistent with a hypothesis based on Weber’s law, which states that the two alternatives are more discriminable when the ratio of their reinforcement probabilities is larger, and, as a result, the acquisition of preference is faster.     

In a daily time–place learning task,time is only used as a discriminative stimulus if each daily session is associated with a distinct spatial location

It is difficult for rats to acquire daily time–place (TP) learning tasks. One theory suggests that rats do not use time of day as a stimulus signaling a specific response. In the present study, we tested rats’ ability to use time of day as a discriminative stimulus. A fixed-interval procedure was used in which one lever provided reinforcement on a FI-5-s schedule in morning sessions, and the same lever provided reinforcement on a FI-30-s schedule in afternoon sessions. Because only one place was used in this paradigm, the rats could only use time of day to acquire the task. Mean responses during the first 5 s of the first trial in each session indicated that the rats did not discriminate between the two sessions. In Phase II, a different lever location was used for each of the two daily sessions, which meant that both spatial and temporal information could be used to acquire the task. The rats readily acquired the task in this phase, and probe trials indicated that the rats were using a combination of spatial and temporal information to discriminate between the two different trial types. When the spatial cue was removed in Phase III, rats no longer discriminated the two sessions, suggesting that time can only be used as a discriminative stimulus when each daily session is associated with a distinct spatial location.     

Schedule-induced drinking facilitates schedule-controlled feeding

Four food-deprived rats barpressed with food reinforcement on a 1-min fixed-interval schedule in 7-h sessions with water either present or absent. They all became polydipsic, drinking after many pellets early in sessions but after fewer pellets later in sessions. Pellets were secured at near maximum rates for about 3 h. Thereafter, the three heaviest drinkers obtained more food with water than without it. The results indicate that schedule-induced drinking does not continue indefinitely and that it can be adaptive with regard to feeding.     

Reductions in resistance to extinction and spontaneous recovery as a function of changes in transportational and contextual stimuli

Thirty rats received 10 sessions of baseline training in which leverpressing was reinforced according to a variable-interval (VI) 60-sec schedule. Twenty-four of the subjects were then assigned to one of four groups that received five sessions of extinction, with groups being differentiated in a 2 by 2 factorial design on the basis of: (1) changes in stimuli accompanying transportation of subjects from home cages to the laboratory and placement in the apparatus, and/or (2) changes in contextual stimuli within the apparatus. During the sixth session of extinction, the transportational and contextual stimuli previously associated with baseline training were reinstated. The remaining six rats experienced changes in both transportational and contextual stimuli but were maintained on the VI 60-sec schedule of reinforcement. Changes in either transportational or contextual stimuli reduced resistance to extinction and spontaneous recovery, and substantial increments in responding occurred upon reinstatement of the transportational and contextual stimuli associated with baseline training. Evidence for summation of the two sources of stimulus change was obtained. Changes in transportational and contextual stimuli produced only a brief disruption in responding when reinforcement of leverpressing was continued.     

Learned variability

Potential contributors to sustained levels of variability in the topography of the rat’s barpress were investigated in two experiments. Behavior was classified into discretely defined components, and changes in components and their sequential organization were analyzed. Experiment 1 showed that topographic variability in the rat is modulated by shifts in reinforcement schedules. Variability decreased between either dipper training or extinction and continuous reinforcement (CRF), and increased between CRF and extinction. Once the press was acquired, variability did not change if the schedule (CRF) did not change. Experiment 2 showed that, regardless of subsequent changes in topographic requirements, rats initially shaped to press under more stringent criteria sustained higher levels of variability during CRF, but not during extinction, than rats shaped with less stringent criteria. The results suggest that subjects learn not only what to do during reinforcement but also how differently or variably to do it.     

Qualitatively different reinforcers and parameters of Herrnstein’s (1970) response-strength equation

Previous research that compared the estimated parameters (i.e.,k andR _e) from Herrnstein’s (1970) hyperbolic matching law equation within the same individuals responding for qualitatively different consummatory reinforcers (i.e., water and sucrose solution) found similar asymptotic response rates (k). The present study compared these parameters within subjects responding on levers for consummatory and nonconsummatory reinforcers. Male Wistar rats responded on a lever in a running wheel on a series of tandem FR 1 VI schedules for either 0.1 ml of a 15% sucrose solution or the opportunity to run for 15 sec. Herrnstein’s hyperbola was fit to response and reinforcement rates from each session. Results showed thatk values were significantly higher for sucrose than for wheel-running reinforcement. On average,R _e was lower for sucrose than for wheel-running reinforcement, though not significantly lower. The results of the present study appear to violate the assumption of the constancy ofk in Herrnstein’s matching law analysis.     

Differences in food consumption under intermittent and continuous reinforcement schedules of water delivery: Some implications for schedule-induced behavior

Consumption of food pellets was examined in four water-deprived rats during 1-h sessions in which water was presented once every 30, 60, or 120 sec independently of the rats’ behavior according to three fixed-time (FT) schedules. Correlated with each FT condition was a continuous reinforcement (CRF) control condition in which the rats received, at the start of the session, the number of dipper presentations that were programmed to occur during the corresponding FT condition. During both the FT and CRF conditions, pellets per dipper presentation decreased and food intake rate increased with rate of water presentation, and there was a direct linear relation between log food intake and log water intake. For each of these three measures there was less eating under the FT condition than under the CRF condition, but the difference between the FT and CRF functions decreased at shorter FT values. These data are discussed in terms of the effects of amount of water on food consumption and the principle of temporal summation.     

Within-session changes in responding during delayed matching-to-sample and discrimination procedures

Two experiments examined within-session changes in responding during discrimination procedures. In Experiment 1, rate of responding changed significantly within sessions during symbolic delayed matching-to-sample tasks when the delay between the stimulus and the choice period was short (1–5 sec), but not when it was long (8–12 sec). The percentage of responses that were correct did not change within sessions. In Experiment 2, response rates increased and then decreased within sessions during both S1 and S2 when successive discrimination procedures provided high, but not low, rates of reinforcement. Discrimination ratios sometimes increased within sessions. These results question two potential definitions of attention as explanations for within-session changes in response rates. They are more compatible with explanations based on concepts such as arousal, satiation, habituation, and interfering responses.     

La compréhension du fonctionnement de la Balance. Une analyse hiérarchique

According to Flavell (1989), psychologists have now to analyze filiations between children’s ideas in more detailed way that the Piagetian one. The rule assessment approach of Siegler (1976, 1978) corresponds to this way, especially the works done about children comprehension of the balance. However, as Larivée et al. (1987) noticed it, the Siegler’s model does not integrate the problem solving strategies of very young children. This research tries to complete the Siegler’s studies. A simple balance with two scales was presented to children between 4 and 6. They were invited either to predict the effect of various manipulations or to explicit the manipulations which can produce some specific effects. The items were inspired by old Piagetian works. Fortyfive children received the first version of the test which was then ajusted (two items were added). The final version was presented to 80 children.     

Past experience,recency, and spontaneous recovery in choice behavior

Pigeons’ responses on two keys were recorded before and after the percentage of reinforcers delivered by each key was changed. In each condition of Experiment 1, the reinforcement percentage for one key was 50% for several sessions, then either 70% or 90% for one, two, or three sessions, and then 50% for another few sessions. At the start of the second and third sessions after a change in reinforcement percentages, choice percentages often exhibited spontaneous recovery—a reversion to the response percentages of earlier sessions. The spontaneous recovery consisted of a shift toward a more extreme response percentage in some cases and toward a less extreme response percentage in other cases, depending on what reinforcement percentages were previously in effect. In Experiment 2, some conditions included a 3-day rest period before a change in reinforcement percentages, and other conditions included no such rest days. Slightly less spontaneous recovery was observed in conditions with the rest periods, suggesting that the influence of prior sessions diminished with the passage of time. The results are consistent with the view that choice behavior at the start of a new session is based on a weighted average of the events of the past several sessions.     

Contextual cues and the retrieval of competing memories of goal events

In Experiment 1, four groups of rats were initially trained on a discrimination which established a stimulus as a signal for reinforcement. That signal was then presented during subsequent partial reinforcement training in a way that could potentially interfere with retrieval of the memory of nonreinforcement (S^N) on the preceding trial either because (1) thestorage and retrieval contexts for S^N were different (retrieval failure hypothesis), or (2) the memory of reinforcement produced by the signal acted as a competing memory (competing memory hypothesis). Experiment 1 supported the competing memory hypothesis. In Experiment 2, we investigated the effect of stimulus change on the capacity of the context to retrieve a competing memory of a temporally remote reinforcement event with which the context was strongly associated. Retrieval of a competing memory was impaired by differences between the storage and retrieval contexts in a manner analogous to the effect of context on retrieval of a reinforcement event memory from an immediately preceding trial.     

Instrumental electrodermal conditioning in the monkey (Cebus albifrons): Acquisition and long-term retention

EightCebus albifrons monkeys received 25 sessions of discriminative operant conditioning of the skin conductance response (SCR), with colored lights as discriminative stimuli and with Sidman avoidance (SS-40 sec, RS-40 sec) scheduled during one light and response-contingent shock during the other, Discriminative stimulus segments were separated by 30-sec periods of time-out from shocks and lights, Two extinction sessions were run 3 months after training, Almost from the beginning of conditioning, the monkeys made significantly more unelicited skin conductance responses in the avoidance periods than in punishment, The monkeys’ heart rates also increased significantly, but there was no difference between avoidance and punishment, SCR frequency during extinction continued to differentiate significantly between avoidance and punishment, and there was a significant increase in this differentiation from the last conditioning session to the first extinction session, but the difference then reduced in the second session, The results indicated that monkey’s SCRs are influenced by instrumental reinforcement contingencies somewhat in the same fashion as those of humans.     

Tracking of the expected time to reinforcement in temporal conditioning procedures

In one experiment, the rate and pattern of responding (head entry into the food cup) under different distributions of intervals between food deliveries were examined. Separate groups of rats received fixed-time (45, 90, 180, or 360 sec), random-time (45, 90, 180, or 360 sec), or tandem fixed-time (45 or 90 sec) random-time (45 or 90 sec) schedules of reinforcement. Schedule type affected the pattern of responding as a function of time, whereas mean interval duration affected the mean rate of responding. Responses occurred in bouts with characteristics that were invariant across conditions. Packet theory, which assumes that the momentary probability of bout occurrence is negatively related to the conditional expected time remaining until the next reinforcer, accurately predicted global and local measures of responding. The success of the model advances the prediction of multiple measures of responding across different types of time-based schedules.     

Motivation,Intelligence, and Creative Behavior in Elementary School Children of Low-Creative Ability

Subjects were three groups of sixth-grade students relatively low in creative ability. It was predicted that a set of training sessions which included both instructions to respond creatively and verbal reinforcement for creative responding would be more effective in increasing creative responses than either simple practice or instructions to respond creatively without accompanying reinforcement. It was also predicted that more-intelligent subjects would benefit more than less-intelligent subjects from the experimental treatment which included reinforcement. Results confirmed the first hypothesis whether creative responding was operationalized in terms of number of responses, number of unique responses, or percentage of unique responses. The second hypothesis was not supported, but the main effect of intelligence was significant both for the number of unique responses and the percentage of unique responses, though not for the total number of responses.     

The effects of illumination on the acquisition of delayed matching-to-sample

Illumination effects during steady-state performance of discrimination tasks in animals have been well documented, whereas research on illumination effects during acquisition has been largely ignored. Exceptions to this rule are Wasserman’s (1973) autoshaping experiments and Maki’s (1979) successive discrimination experiment. The present experiment investigated the effects of illumination changes on acquisition of a conditional discrimination—delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS). Pigeons were used in a between-groups design which factorially varied house-light illumination, on or off, during the presentations of DMTS stimuli, the delay interval, and the intertrial interval (ITI). DMTS performance over five blocks of sessions was the dependent variable. The major result was the three-way interaction of sessions, the intertrial interval, and the DMTS stimuli. Constant illumination resulted in the highest discrimination ratios over the last four blocks of sessions. A constant dark condition did not differ from a condition with dark ITIs and illuminated stimulus presentations or from a condition with illuminated ITIs and dark stimulus presentations. The proffered explanation of these data emphasizes the disruptive effects of stimulus changes and Wasserman’s (1973) cue localization hypothesis. The loci of the stimulus change and cue localization effect are suggested to be either at the beginning of a trial or at the end of a trial. A pretrial account emphasizes the role of stimulus changes on the encoding of the sample stimulus, and a posttrial account emphasizes the role of stimulus changes during consolidation processing.     

The generality of within-session patterns of responding: Rate of reinforcement and session length

Rats and pigeons responded for food delivered according to multiple schedules. The session length varied from 10 to 120 min, and the programmed rate of reinforcement varied from 15 to 240 reinforcers per hour. Response rates usually changed systematically within experimental sessions. For both rats and pigeons, responding reached a peak after an approximately constant amount of time since the beginning of the session, regardless of session length. When rats, but not pigeons, served as subjects, the peak rates of responding occurred later in the session and the within-session changes were smaller for lower than for higher rates of reinforcement. The similarities between the results for rats and for pigeons when session length varied suggest that at least one of the factors that produces the within-session changes in responding is shared by the present species, responses, and reinforcers. The differences in results when rate of reinforcement varied are more difficult to interpret.