Stronger Reinforcer Research Articles

Beliefs and social norms about codeine and promethazine hydrochloride cough syrup (CPHCS) onset and perceived addiction among urban Houstonian adolescents: an addiction trend in the city of lean.

In the current study, we used a qualitative approach to investigate relevant beliefs and norms associated with codeine and promethazine hydrochloride cough syrup (CPHCS) consumption, initiation, and perceived addiction among 48 alternative school students who identified themselves as current CPHCS users. In general, both boys and girls believed that CPHCS addiction started during an individual's initial consumption. A majority of both groups reported that their second CPHCS event was initiated during the same or next day after their first event. Our findings suggest that friends and an innovative form of hip-hop music called "screw" are strong reinforcers of CPHCS use.

Cultural objects modulate reward circuitry.

Using event-related fMRI we investigated the rewarding properties of cultural objects (cars) signaling wealth and social dominance. It has been shown recently that reward mechanisms are involved in the regulation of social relations like dominance and social rank. Based on evolutionary considerations we hypothesized that sports cars in contrast to other categories of cars, e.g. limousines and small cars, are strong social reinforcers and would modulate the dopaminergic reward circuitry. Twelve healthy male subjects were studied with fMRI while viewing photographs of different car classes followed by an attractivity rating. Behaviorally sports cars were rated significantly more attractive than limousines and small cars. Our fMRI results revealed significantly more activation in ventral striatum, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate and occipital regions for sports cars in contrast to other categories of cars. We could thus demonstrate that artificial cultural objects associated with wealth and social dominance elicit activation in reward-related brain areas.

Effect of following an excitatory-inhibitory compound with an intermediate reinforcer.

Pavlovian-conditioned inhibition training of the form A++, AB- (where ++ is a strong reinforcer and - is nonreinforcement) was conducted in 3 experiments with rats and 1 with pigeons. Then AB+ training was given (in which + is an effective reinforcer that is weaker than ++). The + reinforcer was achieved by reducing the frequency, lessening the amount, or lengthening the delay with which ++ was delivered. All 4 experiments found the AB+ treatment to enhance responding to both the excitatory A and the inhibitory B in comparison with untreated control stimuli. However, when appropriate assessments were made, the increase was more substantial for the inhibitory B. This pattern of results presents challenges for most current theories of associative learning.

A Comparison of the Reinforcing Efficacy of Alcohol in Alcohol-Preferring (P) and Alcohol-Nonpreferring (NP) Rats

A key feature of the selective breeding program that produced alcohol-preferring (P) and alcohol-nonpreferring (NP) rats is that the alcohol was mixed with water. However, humans typically drink sweetened or palatably flavored alcohol. The experiments in this study tested whether the differences in P and NP rats generalize to sweetened alcohol. In Experiment 1, P rats drank more alcohol than NP rats when the vehicle was water, but NP rats drank about as much alcohol as P rats (1.1 to 1.3 g/kg/30 min) when the vehicle was a saccharin solution. Experiment 2 tested whether P rats were more susceptible to the rewarding properties of sweetened alcohol than were NP rats. The criterion for reward strength was the degree to which alcohol-reinforced lever pressing persisted, despite increases in the schedule requirements for the alcohol reward. In baseline, lever presses were reinforced with sweetened alcohol and an isocaloric Polycose solution according to two, concurrent, variable-interval 5-s schedules. In subsequent conditions, the interval schedule for alcohol was increased, and then, after a return to baseline, the interval schedule for Polycose was increased. By the criterion of resistance to change, alcohol was a stronger reinforcer than was Polycose, and alcohol was a stronger reinforcer in NP rats than in P rats.

A New Assessment of the Ability of Oral Ethanol to Function as a Reinforcing Stimulus

In animal studies, the ability of ethanol to function as a reinforcer has been described as weak to moderate. This is in contrast with the human condition, where the consumption of alcoholic beverages can result in a variety of unwanted drinking behaviors. However, when the ethanol self-administration pattern is examined, animal studies over the last several years indicate that the ability of ethanol presentation to maintain behavior may be greater than originally assumed. We reevaluated the ability of ethanol to function as a reinforcing stimulus in two paradigms by using an analysis of drinking bout characteristics. Data from previous studies that employed two self-administration models were analyzed. With the "dipper" model, small amounts of ethanol are presented after each completion of a response requirement; with the "sipper" model, the animal is allowed access to a drinking tube that contains ethanol for an extended period after completing a single response requirement. For both models, the consumption pattern could be characterized as occurring in a bout. Each drinking bout was divided into runs within the bout, and run rates and size were analyzed. As well, in the sipper model, the data on response requirement size were reviewed to demonstrate the ability of ethanol presentation to maintain high levels of responding in this model. From this assessment, we suggest that ethanol presentation in non-food- or non-water-restricted rats is as reinforcing as many other stimuli generally considered to be strong reinforcers (i.e., food in food-restricted rats). Using run size, we demonstrated that intake control appears to be regulated by shifts in run size during the bout and not run rate. Assessment of the pattern of ethanol consummatory bouts and the behaviors that precede them is critical in understanding how ethanol functions as a reinforcer. By using a drinking pattern analysis, the shifts in the momentary salience of the ethanol stimulus can be evaluated in these animal models. In addition, the separation of responding required to gain access to ethanol from consumption of ethanol demonstrated that ethanol presentation in this procedure can be a strong reinforcer for rats.

A New Assessment of the Ability of Oral Ethanol to Function as a Reinforcing Stimulus

Background: In animal studies, the ability of ethanol to function as a reinforcer has been described as weak to moderate. This is in contrast with the human condition, where the consumption of alcoholic beverages can result in a variety of unwanted drinking behaviors. However, when the ethanol self-administration pattern is examined, animal studies over the last several years indicate that the ability of ethanol presentation to maintain behavior may be greater than originally assumed. Methods: We reevaluated the ability of ethanol to function as a reinforcing stimulus in two paradigms by using an analysis of drinking bout characteristics. Data from previous studies that employed two self-administration models were analyzed. With the “dipper” model, small amounts of ethanol are presented after each completion of a response requirement; with the “sipper” model, the animal is allowed access to a drinking tube that contains ethanol for an extended period after completing a single response requirement. For both models, the consumption pattern could be characterized as occurring in a bout. Each drinking bout was divided into runs within the bout, and run rates and size were analyzed. As well, in the sipper model, the data on response requirement size were reviewed to demonstrate the ability of ethanol presentation to maintain high levels of responding in this model. Results: From this assessment, we suggest that ethanol presentation in non-food- or non-water-restricted rats is as reinforcing as many other stimuli generally considered to be strong reinforcers (i.e., food in food-restricted rats). Using run size, we demonstrated that intake control appears to be regulated by shifts in run size during the bout and not run rate. Conclusions: Assessment of the pattern of ethanol consummatory bouts and the behaviors that precede them is critical in understanding how ethanol functions as a reinforcer. By using a drinking pattern analysis, the shifts in the momentary salience of the ethanol stimulus can be evaluated in these animal models. In addition, the separation of responding required to gain access to ethanol from consumption of ethanol demonstrated that ethanol presentation in this procedure can be a strong reinforcer for rats.

Broadening the Scope of Assessment in the Schools: Building Teacher Efficacy in Student Assessment

Two surveys were administered to middle school mathematics teachers participating in professional development workshops on performance-based assessment (PBA); veteran teachers, dubbed implementers of PBA, who led those workshops; and university-based teacher educators. The surveys focused on classroom assessment variables and on teachers' needs for and views about the importance of PBA experiences. Teachers indicated perceptions of high efficacy regarding their ability to effect instructional change. Most indicated experiencing freedom in instructional decisions and reported improved interactions with colleagues and students due to their use of PBA. High use of other reform-based instructional practices and high interest in more professional development on alternative assessments was also reported. Implications of these findings for teacher retention and educational reform are discussed. INTRODUCTION Educators have long recognized that their successes lie largely in the proper alignment of three fundamental components: curriculum, instruction, and assessment (Crowell & Tissot, 1986; Leitzel & Vogler, 1994; Melnick & Gable, 1989). From the standpoint of students, who may not even realize it themselves at the moment, the third component, particularly teachers' assessments of their academic work, is the most important. Children begin school wanting to learn, and the high expectations and approval of their teachers serve as strong positive reinforcers of student achievement. Conversely, low teacher expectations, lack of teacher approval, or overt teacher disapproval can serve as negative reinforcers, with related negative consequences on student performance (Aaronsohn, Holmes, Foley, & Wallowitz, 1994; Cooper, 1983; Nafpaktitis, Mayer, & Butterworth, 1985). Much of this reinforcement, in either direction, comes as the result of students' performance on assessments that seek to measure their grasp and mastery of what has been taught, which is essentially the primary significance of assessment in the educational enterprise. However, in the complicated zeitgeist of school reform, with its promotion of standards of many types and its penchant for innovative approaches to student assessment, many teachers find that their preparation for and comfort with new forms of assessment is often disturbingly low (Fuhrman & O'Day, 1996). Notwithstanding, assessment is understandably a major focus of school reform. Teachers' discomfort with assessment can be closely related to their senses of competence and efficacy, which in turn influence the quality of their instruction and which also bear upon those whom they teach and assess. A teacher's sense of efficacy and empowerment can also be a deciding factor in whether or not he or she remains, or should remain, in the teaching profession. As Woodruff (1999) has maintained, teacher efficacy is a major element in teacher job satisfaction and retention. Though teachers may leave the profession for a variety of reasons, efficacy in the major areas of functioning seems to have a motivational effect and thus encourages continuation. In their study of 10,544 classroom teachers employed in 307 Venture Capital Schools funded to implement restructuring by the state legislature in Ohio, Klecker and Loadman (1996) measured dimensions of teacher decision making, self-efficacy, autonomy, professional growth, and impact. They also measured teacher satisfaction in a number of areas including: opportunities for advancement, degree of challenge, interaction with colleagues, general working conditions, and interaction with students. They found a high, positive linear correlation between teacher empowerment and job satisfaction. School districts across the nation lose a large number of teachers in their first years of teaching, and many of these are lost to the profession permanently. Kirby and Grissmer (1993) and Murnane, Singer, Willett, Kemple, and Olsen (1991), in their studies of teacher attrition, indicated that between a fourth to a third of those teachers who leave in any given year return to teaching in subsequent years. …

The nature of sexual reinforcement.

Sexual reinforcers are not part of a regulatory system involved in the maintenance of critical metabolic processes, they differ for males and females, they differ as a function of species and mating system, and they show ontogenetic and seasonal changes related to endocrine conditions. Exposure to a member of the opposite sex without copulation can be sufficient for sexual reinforcement. However, copulatory access is a stronger reinforcer, and copulatory opportunity can serve to enhance the reinforcing efficacy of stimulus features of a sexual partner. Conversely, under certain conditions, noncopulatory exposure serves to decrease reinforcer efficacy. Many common learning phenomena such as acquisition, extinction, discrimination learning, second-order conditioning, and latent inhibition have been demonstrated in sexual conditioning. These observations extend the generality of findings obtained with more conventional reinforcers, but the mechanisms of these effects and their gender and species specificity remain to be explored.

CONTROL OF BEHAVIOR BY AN ESTABLISHING STIMULUS

Seventeen pigeons were exposed to a three-key discrete-trial procedure in which a peck on the lit center key produced food if, and only if, the left keylight was lit. The center key was illuminated by a peck on the lit right key. Of interest was whether subjects pecked the right key before or after the response-independent onset of the left keylight. Pecks on the right key after left-keylight onset suggest control of behavior by the left keylight-an establishing stimulus. In three experiments, the strength of center-keylight onset as conditioned reinforcer for a response on the right key was manipulated by altering the size of the reduction in time to food delivery correlated with its onset. Control of pigeons' key pecks by onset of the left keylight occurred on more trials per session when the center keylight was a relatively weak conditioned reinforcer and on fewer trials per session when the center keylight was a relatively strong condtioned reinforcer. Differences across conditions in the degree of control by onset of the establishing stimulus were greatest when changes in conditioned reinforcer strength occurred relatively frequently and were signaled. The results provide evidence of the function of an establishing stimulus.

Do-or-Die Spelling: Teaching without the Struggle

Like other teachers, I have labored over how to teach spelling. I struggled to help students learn to spell the same words they use with ease in their speech. I tried to help students learn to use a more varied vocabulary, one usually more difficult to spell, by trying to show them what little rhyme and reason exist in the rules of spelling. I tried oral drill; I tried spelling lists. I tried rewards; I tried punishments. I struggled long and I struggled hard. I now also believe I struggled unnecessarily. In my search for a better idea, I came across an intriguing theory of learning from educational psychology, the theory of latent learning proposed by psychologist Edward Tolman. According to Tolman, much learning occurs just below the level at which it can be observed or demonstrated, and learning takes place without the learner being aware. Latent learning supposedly accounts for the sudden flash of insight that sometimes seems to occur when students suddenly understand what they had previously been unable to get. One famous example of latent learning is the flashing of a soft drink ad for a part of a second on a movie screen. Supposedly, this latent image led to increased sales of the beverage in the lobby. I thought this theory over. It seemed to call for little or no instruction, only easy and frequent access to the correct spelling of a word to produce latent learning of the correct spelling. But it required a strong reinforcer to bring forth the student's selection of the correct spelling. I came up with the idea of the do-or-die quiz. I gathered frequently misspelled words from papers, determined which words gave the class the most problems, and identified other words the class needed to learn to spell. Each day I wrote three of he frequently misspelled words on the chalkboard, announced that these were the do-or-die words, and described ways in which they were most frequently misspelled. Near the end of the period I erased the three words, and the class was asked to spell one, two, or three of the words on a slip of paper. The quiz was known as a do-or-die quiz because a correct spelling produced a grade of A and an incorrect spelling produced a grade of F. (In fact, my students thought up the nickname and it stuck.) The first week, the class spelled one of the three words. In succeeding weeks, they worked up to two and then all three words. Students handed in

The reinforcing properties of procaine, chloroprocaine and proparacaine in rhesus monkeys

Responding was maintained under a fixed ratio 10 schedule of intravenous cocaine (six monkeys) or pentobarbital (two monkeys) delivery during a daily 3 h session. When responding was stable, intravenous doses of procaine (0.05--3.2 mg/kg), chloroprocaine (0.05--3.2 mg/kg), proparacaine (0.01--0.4 mg/kg), or saline were substituted for the cocaine or pentobarbital for six to ten sessions. Between each substitution, responding was again maintained by cocaine or pentobarbital. Procaine and chloroprocaine maintained rates of responding exceeding saline levels in all monkeys tested, with maximum rates generated by 0.2 mg/kg. Daily intake in mg/kg increased 3--10 times a dose was increased from 0.1 to 3.2 mg/kg per infusion. Within each session, there were periods of continuous responding resulting in multiple infusions, separated by intervals of no responding of varying duration. Nevertheless, the number of infusions occurring in each of the six 30 min periods was relatively constant for both drugs. Responding maintained by proparacaine was similar or slightly above that maintained by saline except at one dose (0.025 mg/kg) in one monkey. No signs of toxicity were observed with any of the drugs. These results indicate that procaine and chloroprocaine are strong positive reinforcers but that proparacaine has minimal reinforcing properties.

An Analysis of the Reinforcing Function of Clinician Attention

This paper examines the reinforcing effects of attention in speech-language remediation. It concludes that: 1) attention may be a strong positive reinforcer for any behavior upon which it is contingent, 2) attention may serve as a reinforcer regardless of the intent of clinicians' verbal statements which accompany it, and 3) clinician attention affects group behavior and patterns of peer reinforcement.

The principal game: A group consequence procedure to increase classroom in-task behavior

The effect of principal attention contingent upon team on-task performance was examined in an unruly fourth-grade class. In the first condition, principal attention was delivered through a game-like group consequence procedure referred to as the Princial Game. During the second experimental condition, principal attention was delivered to individual subjects contingent upon each individual's behavior. Principal attention was found to be a strong reinforcer in both experimental conditions, but ercentage of on-task behavior during team consequences was higher than during individual consequences.

Exposure to Non-Contingent Light Change in Separate Sessions Prior to Light-Contingent Bar Pressing

The reported experiment investigated the effects of prior exposure to non-contigent light change over five sessions on subsequent light-contingent bar pressing (LCBP) behaviour. Prior exposure reduced the frequency of LCBP over the initial sessions, but responding then increased so that the effect was no longer evident in the middle and terminal LCBP sessions. That is, prior exposure to non-contingent light change affected LCBP by retarding its acquisition. It was argued that this overall result is consistent with previous research on the effects of prior experience of reinforcement being non-contingent on subsequent response-contingent behaviour, where the effect has sometimes been characterized as “learned helplessness”. This previous research, however, has concentrated on the strong conventional reinforcers such as shock avoidance and food. The present findings show that intrinsically motivated behaviour with a weak reinforcer is also affected by prior experience of the reinforcer as an uncontrollable event.

Narcotic blockade, length of addiction and persistence of etonitazene consumption in rats

Rats were given daily trials to determine relative preference for an opiate (etonitazene, ETZ) or for water. Animals with a greater history of previous drug exposure developed ETZ preferences more rapidly than did relatively drug-naive animals. Pretreatment with adequate blocking doses of naloxone reduced drug intake to near zero in most subjects. However, animals with the greatest history of prior addiction continued to drink large quantities of ETZ, despite pretreatment with relatively large doses of naloxone. These results can be explained by assuming that stimuli associated with the reinforcing properties of the opioid solution become strong conditioned reinforcers, capable of maintaining responding for long periods of time despite blockade of the reinforcement properties of the drug.

A partial reinforcement effect based on latent procedures in a choice situation

Food was presented to satiated rats in one arm of a T-maze on either a consistent or intermittent basis. When tested under food deprivation, the partially reinforced group ran faster and made fewer errors than the consistently reinforced group. Results indicated that the latent partial reinforcement effect is a reliable phenomenon and that partial reinforcement can produce relatively strong secondary reinforcers, even when Ss are trained while satiated.

AN EXAMPLE OF A STRONG CONDITIONED REINFORCER IN ANIMAL‐EXPERIMENTER INTERACTION

AN EXAMPLE OF A STRONG CONDITIONED REINFORCER IN ANIMAL‐EXPERIMENTER INTERACTION