Signal properties of reinforcement and reinforcement omission on a multiple fixed-ratio schedule

A series of experiments used food-deprived pigeons to examine several parameters of reinforcement omission in an attempt to control changes of keypeck response measures on a subsequent schedule. In Experiments 1 and 2, the pigeons were tested with a multiple fixed-ratio schedule on which reinforcement was occasionally omitted at the completion of the first component. The duration of the delay occurring in lieu of reinforcement was systematically varied. In Experiment 3, the stimulus that signaled the second component of the schedule was altered to appear either more or less similar to the stimulus that signaled the first component. Two principal results are reported: (1) Response latency decreased and, to a much lesser extent, terminal response rate increased as the delay occurring in lieu of reinforcement decreased; and (2) both latency decrease and response-rate increase were enhanced by a second component stimulus which was similar to the first. The results are evaluated in terms of Amsel’s frustration theory and an analysis by Staddon which suggests that reinforcement inhibits responding. The data appear to support Staddon’s argument that rate increases and latency decreases following reinforcement omission are largely a function of an attenuation of the inhibitory influence of reinforcement, an effect that is enhanced by stimulus generalization. Accordingly, it is proposed that an animal’s response to reinforcement omission is determined by a stimulus complex that minimally includes the omission event and component cues.     

Relation between work stress and job performance in nursing: A comparison of models

Multilevel covariance structure analysis was used to compare two theoretical models that have been proposed to explain the relation between job demand and job control on nursing performance. A key feature of both models is that high job demand and low job control influences the nurses mood state (or state of stress), and this results in reduced nursing performance. Objective measures of job demand and level of control were collected at the level of the hospital ward; measures of perceived job demand, job control, mood state, and nursing performance related to individual nurses within each ward. The modeling provided evidence that both perceived job demand and perceived job control influenced both anxiety and emotional exhaustion, enabling us to reject 1 of the proposed models.     

Effects of schedule and delay of reinforcement on acquisition speed

The effects of schedule of reinforcement (partial vs. consistent) and delay of reward (0 to 20 sec) on running in rats were examined in two investigations. The effects of delay depended upon schedule of reinforcement; acquisition speed decreased as delay increased under consistent reinforcement, a common finding, while acquisition speed was independent of delay under partial reinforcement, a new finding. The partial-reinforcement acquisition effect or PRAE is defined as faster acquisition speed under partial than under consistent reinforcement. Because running speed was independent of delay under partial reinforcement, but decreased as delay increased under consistent reinforcement, the PRAE increased as delay of reinforcement increased.     

Reversing the reinforcement contingencies of eating and keypecking behaviors

Four of five pigeons were conditioned to peck a key at a high, stable rate on a VI schedule and then given concurrent access to free food. It was found, in replication of Neuringer’s results, that the pigeons pecked a key for grain in the presence of free grain. When availability of the response key (high-probability response) was made contingent on eating free grain (a lower probability response), there was a progressive increase in free-food eating, confirming Premack’s reinforcement principle. For two additional birds, when availability of the key was made contingent onnot eating the free food (a type of DRO schedule), the frequency of free-food eating declined. Thus, availability of the key. depending on the contingency, reinforced both the eating and noneating of free food.     

对师生冲突可逆性的研究

师生关系是学校教育中最主要的关系,师生冲突和分歧是正常的不可避免的,没有冲突就没有真正和谐与深厚的师生关系.通过体育游戏法可以避免虚假的稳定局面和破坏性冲突.     

From censure to reinforcement: developmental changes in the association between aggression and social status

Developmental changes were examined in the associations among physical and relational aggression, and sociometric and perceived popularity based on peer nominations. Participating in the longitudinal study were 905 children (440 girls, 465 boys) from ages 10 to 14. Associations between the forms of status and between the forms of aggression decreased over time. Relational aggression increasingly predicted high social prominence but low social preference; physical aggression was increasingly less disliked but decreasingly predictive of prominence. The effect of relational aggression on perceived popularity was strong for girls. Perceived popularity preceded physical and relational aggression for both genders. Implications for the attainment of high status, processes of peer influence on antisocial behavior, and gender differences in the meaning of status are discussed.     

Potentiation of responding on a VR schedule by a stimulus correlated with reinforcement: Effects of diffuse and localized signals

In Experiment 1, rats were trained to leverpress on a variable ratio (VR) 30 schedule with a 500-msec delay between the reinforced response and food delivery. Subjects that experienced a signal during the delay responded faster than did control subjects that received the stimulus un-correlated with reinforcement. Higher response rates were obtained when the stimulus used to signal reinforcement was auditory rather than visual. Experiments 2 and 3 compared the effects of signaling reinforcement with either a localized or a diffuse light on responding maintained by VR schedules of reinforcement. Elevated response rates were observed with the diffuse stimulus, but the localized stimulus failed to produce such potentiation. Experiment 3 also examined the conditioned reinforcing power of localized and diffuse visual stimuli. These results are discussed with reference to (1) theories of selective association and sign tracking and (2) their implications for current theories of signaling reinforcement.     

School motivation: A comparison between Kenya and Italy

The authors compare school motivation in Kenya and Italy, two countries that differ in terms of socioeconomic conditions, structure of the school system, and access to education. Free primary education is indeed a recent attainment for Kenyan students. The participants, 449 Kenyan and 480 Italian students, 9–14 years old and attending Grades 4–8, were asked to complete a questionnaire about learning motivation. A factor analysis revealed that school motivation can be described by five dimensions in both contexts: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, academic self-concept, causal attribution, and amotivation. Differences between countries and lower (Grades 4–5) and higher (Grades 6–8) grades emerged: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and academic self-concept were found to be higher in Kenyan than in Italian students, whereas amotivation was lower. Moreover, only Italian students showed less intrinsic motivation and more amotivation in higher grades than in the lower ones.     

Further Education and Training: A comparison of policy models in Britain and Norway

This article compares further education and training (FET) policy in Britain and Norway. FET stands for the transmission of knowledge and skills to the existing workforce, as distinct from initial education and training (IET), which qualifies new entrants to work. FET policy has, in both countries, in recent years increasingly been committed to the idea of market organisation. Policy suggestions in this area seem to be guided by three different theoretical perspectives: the model of perfect competition markets, public choice perspectives and social integration perspectives, emphasising collective arrangements. The article argues that while British policy has pursued the model of autonomous markets, Norwegian policy is committed to a mixed model. The mixed model combines market organisation with collective arrangements. This is seen as an example of planned markets, a concept developed in Swedish research on health reform. The interference of labour market training in the system designed for FET complicates the evaluation of the two FET models.     

Instrumental escape learning in the rat at 24-hour intertriai interval: Effects of magnitude and schedule of reinforcement

Three experiments investigated the effects of magnitude and schedule of reinforcement and level of training in instrumental escape learning at a 24-h intertriai interval. In Experiment I, two magnitudes of reinforcement were factorially combined with two schedules of reinforcement (CRF and PRF). Under PRF, large reward produced greater resistance to extinction than did small reward, while the reverse was true under CRF. In Experiment II, two levels of acquisition training were factorially combined with three schedules of reinforcement (CRF, single-alternation, and nonalternated PRF). Patterned running was observed late in acquisition in the single-alternation extended-training condition. Resistance to extinction was greater for the nonalternated PRF condition than for the single-alternation condition following extended acquisition, and the reverse was true following limited acquisition. Experiment III confirmed the extinction findings of Experiment II. The results of all three experiments supported an analysis of escape learning at spaced trials in terms of Capaldi’s (1967) sequential theory.     

The advantage of mixing examples in inductive learning: a comparison of three hypotheses

Mixing examples of different categories (interleaving) has been shown to promote inductive learning as compared with presenting examples of the same category together (massing). In three studies, we tested whether the advantage of interleaving is exclusively due to the mixing of examples from different categories or to the temporal gap introduced between presentations. In addition, we also tested the role of working memory capacity (WMC). Results showed that the mixing of examples might be the key component that determines improved induction. WMC might also be involved in the interleaving effect: participants with high spans seemed to profit more than participants with low spans from interleaved presentations. Our findings have relevant implications for education. Practice schedules should be individually customised so society as a whole can profit from differences between learners.     

Fluid intelligence and discriminative operant learning of reinforcement contingencies in a fixed ratio 3 schedule

Although intelligence has traditionally been identified as the ability to learn (Peterson, 1925), this relationship has been questioned in simple operant learning tasks (Spielberger, 1962). Nevertheless, recent pieces of research have demonstrated a strong and significant correlation between associative learning measures and intelligence ( [Kaufman et al., 2009] and [Williams et al., 2008] ). The present paper aims to examine the relationship between intelligence and learning, complying with the experimental conditions of discriminative conditioning in a relatively complex free operant task. To that end, a sample of 1600 subjects applying for an ab initio Air Traffic Control training course was tested. The task is expected to allow identifying the specific influence of intelligence on the discrimination between stimulus dimensions. The results show how the relation among learning and intelligence strengthen on those trials which are critical in terms of discrimination.     

两种短期电力负荷预测模型的比较

负荷预测是电力系统规划、计划、用电、调度等部门的基础工作,电力负荷是影响电网寿命和可靠度的一个重要因素。结合某省电网近五年来总电力负荷数据,对电力负荷数据进行分析与预处理,分别运用ARIMA模型与灰色GM（1,1）模型针对该省的电力总负荷分别做未来3天和10天两种情况下的短期预测,重点比较了所用两种方法的优缺点和精准度,得到3天的预测精度上GM（1,1）模型效果高于ARIMA模型,10天的预测精度上ARIMA模型相对较好。     

Conjunctive schedules of reinforcement IV: Effects on the pattern of responding of changes in requirement at reinforcement

The effects of different schedule requirements at reinforcement on patterns of responding by pigeons were assessed under conjunctive schedules with comparable response-number requirements, Under one conjunctive schedule (conjunctive fixed-interval fixed-ratio schedule), a response was reinforced after a 6-min interval had elapsedand a specific minimum number of responses had been emitted, Under a second conjunctive schedule, a response was reinforced after the 6-min fixed interval and upon completion of a tandem schedule requirement (conjunctive fixed-interval tandem schedule), This schedule retained the same required minimum number of responses as the first conjunctive schedule, but responses were never reinforced according to a fixed-ratio schedule; the tandem schedule was comprised of a fixed-ratio and a small (.1 to 10.0 sec) fixed-interval schedule, Under the conjunctive fixed-interval fixed-ratio schedule, responding was characterized by an initial pause, an abrupt transition to a high response rate, and a second transition to a lower rate that prevailed or slightly increased up to reinforcement, Under the conjunctive fixed-interval tandem schedule, pauses were extended, response rates were lower, and the initial high rate of responding was generally absent, The above effects depended upon the size of the fixed interval of the tandem schedule, The distinct pattern of responding generated by conjunctive fixed-interval fixed-ratio schedules depends upon occasional reinforcement of fixed-ratio responding and not merely on the addition of a minimum number of required responses.     

Effect on subsequent fixed-interval schedule performance of prior exposure to ratio and interval schedules of reinforcement

In three experiments, we examined the effect on the patterns of responding noted on fixed interval (FI) schedules of prior exposure to a range of interval and ratio schedules. Rats leverpressed for food reinforcement on random ratio (RR), random interval (RI), or variable interval (VI) schedules prior to transfer to FI schedules. In Experiment 1, prior exposure to an RR schedule retarded the development of typical FI patterns of responding. Exposure to a yoked RI schedule produced even greater retardation of typical FI performance. This effect was replicated in Experiment 2, using a within-subjects design. Rats responded on a multiple RR-RI schedule prior to a multiple FI-FI schedule. Typical FI performance emerged more slowly in the component previously associated with the RI than with that associated with the RR. In Experiment 3, exposure to an RR schedule retarded the development of FI performance to a greater extent than did exposure to a VR schedule. The latter schedule was programmed to allow the possibility that inhibitory control would develop after reinforcement. These results confirm that ratio schedules independently result in the disruption of FI responding. This effect was not long lasting and cannot be used plausibly to explain species differences in responding to FI schedules. However, it does suggest that temporal control—as manifested by the transfer of inhibitory control from one schedule to another—could facilitate movement between interval schedules.     

Classical conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane response: Effects of reinforcement schedule on response maintenance and resistance to extinction

Two experiments were conducted to assess the effects of the introduction of schedules of partial reinforcement (PRF), subsequent to continuous reinforcement training, on the maintenance and resistance to extinction of the rabbit’s nictitating membrane CR. Substantial response levels were maintained by schedules of reinforcement as lean as 15%, and the performance decrements, when observed to be reliable, could not be localized to the immediate effects of one, two, or three consecutive nonreinforced trials by the examination of conditional response probabilities. Moreover, reliable PRF extinction effects were obtained. The relevance of these findings to the purported empirical divergence of PRF effects on classical and instrumental conditioning were discussed.     

对依法治国和以德治国的再思考

能否积极地正确地贯彻依法治国和以德治国相结合的治国方略,取决于对依法治国和以德治国的深刻理解,以德治国内涵包括施仁政、重道德教化、建立有中国特色的社会主义道德体系等方面的内容;依法治国的内涵,主要是指法律的权威至高无上,在法律面前人人平等,任何人必须依法办事。法治不是和德治相对立的概念,而是和人治相对立的概念。法治是政治文明,德治是精神文明。必须把德治划定在精神文明的范畴之内,才不会造成德治和法治的冲突。德治与法治各有其特殊性,不能相互替代,二者又具有统一性,因此具有结合的必要性和可能性。以德治国是目的,依法治国是实现这一目的的根本手段,所以二者应当并重。坚持依法治国和以德治国相结合的方略关键在党。