Decrease In Mean Number Research Articles

Successive spatial discrimination reversals in the bat

The performance of five Eptesicus fuscus was studied across a series of nine successive reversals of a spatial discrimination problem. The Ss showed a decrease in mean number of errors across the reversals with an error peak on the third reversal. These results are consistent with the view that improvement across successive reversals (SDRs) is a behavioral indicator of taxonomic differences.

Conditioning visual orientation of conduct problem children in the classroom

Five hyperactive, aggressive children in a special class served as Ss in an experiment designed to increase visual orientation toward the teacher. E observed Ss individually while they were listening to a story read by the teacher. After baseline, if S looked at the teacher continuously during a 10-second observation period, he was reinforced by a light flash which appeared in a small box attached to his desk, followed by candy and/or social reinforcement for the number of light flashes he had earned. The mean number of visual orientation responses significantly increased in the candy plus social reinforcement phase. Although there was a significant decrease in mean number of responses from the last time block of candy plus social reinforcement to the first time block of social reinforcement alone, the mean number of responses significantly increased in the social reinforcement phase, and the mean number of responses significantly decreased in the extinction phase.