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Frontiers of Translational Behavioral Science |
Monday, May 27, 2013 |
9:00 AM–10:20 AM |
Auditorium Room 1 (Convention Center) |
Area: SCI/EAB; Domain: Applied Research |
Chair: Iser Guillermo DeLeon (Kennedy Krieger Institute) |
Discussant: F. Charles Mace (Nova Southeastern University) |
CE Instructor: Iser Guillermo DeLeon, Ph.D. |
Abstract: Translational research links laboratory findings to applied research and innovations in practice. Scientific communities are experiencing a renewed emphasis on translational research, as evidenced by recently adopted NIH funding priorities and, within behavior analysis, several recent papers in The Behavior Analyst and a new initiative for translational research in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB). Effective translational research often requires a partnership between those that have produced provocative laboratory findings and those that understand the necessities and practicalities of the context to which those findings might be brought to bear. Towards this end, the ABAI Science Board has brought together several prominent basic scientists, ready and willing to discuss findings that are on the cusp of translation or in their translational infancy. Allen Neuringer will address the functionality of reinforced variability. Thomas Zentall will describe an animal model of suboptimal choice analogous to human gambling. Timothy Hackenberg describes recent behavioral economic explorations into the nature of generalized reinforcers in the pigeon. To comment on the sort of innovations that may arise from these topics, F. Charles (Bud) Mace, translational science editor for JEAB and one of our fields most prominent applied/translational researchers will serve as discussant. |
Keyword(s): Generalized Reinforcers, Reinforced Variability, Suboptimal Choice, Translational Research |
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Operant Variability |
ALLEN NEURINGER (Reed College) |
Abstract: Behavior analysts well know that animals and people can learn to repeat a response when reinforcement is contingent upon repetitions of that response. Less widely appreciated is that animals and people also can learn to vary when reinforcement is contingent upon variability. In the first case, the response can readily be predicted; in the latter, prediction may be difficult or impossible. Particular levels of variability or (un)predictability, including approximations to random responding, have been generated through reinforcing feedback, such as under lag, threshold, and statistical-feedback schedules. These studies support the claim that variability is an operant dimension, much like response force, frequency, location, and topography. As with these others, contingencies of reinforcement and discriminative stimuli exert precise control. Reinforced variability imparts functionality in many situations, such as when individuals learn new responses, improve skills, explore new situations, attempt to solve problems, or engage in creative work. Importantly, reinforced variability helps to explain the voluntary nature of operant behavior. |
Allen Neuringer obtained his B.A. from Columbia College in 1962 (Fred Keller taught his introductory class), his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1967 (Richard Herrnstein advised his thesis), and taught at Reed College in Portland, OR, from 1970 until his retirement as MacArthur Professor of Psychology in 2008. He continues to teach Functional Variability as emeritus professor. His research has shown that pigeons can discriminate among musical episodes, e.g., Bach versus Stravinsky; that pigeons' self-control is governed in ways similar to Walter Mischel's children; and that rats and pigeons will respond for food reinforcers even when food is freely available, sometimes referred to as contra freeloading. He also has published on the possibilities of self-experimentation. Since the early 1980s his research has focused on reinforced variability--its characteristics, implications, and applications. He lives at the Ridge, a forested area in western Oregon, in a house he built with Martha, his spouse, and Reed students; and plants trees and feeds birds. |
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An Animal Model of Human Gambling Behavior |
THOMAS ZENTALL (University of Kentucky) |
Abstract: When humans engage in organized gambling, they are generally choosing suboptimally (i.e., losses are almost always greater than gains). We present a model of suboptimal gambling in which animals prefer an occasional signaled high payoff (10 pellets 20% of the time; 2 pellets on average) rather than a reliable alternative with a signal for a lower payoff (3 pellets 100% of the time). This effect appears to result from the strong conditioned reinforcement associated with the stimulus followed by a high payoff. Surprisingly, although experienced four times as much, the stimulus that is never followed by reinforcement does not appear to result in significant conditioned inhibition. Similarly, human gamblers tend to overvalue wins and undervalue losses. We also have found that pigeons gamble less when food is less restricted (rich people gamble less than poor people) and they also gamble less when they have been exposed to an enriched environment rather than being kept in an individual cage (for humans, gambling is said to be a form of entertainment). This animal model should provide a useful analog to human gambling behavior, one that is free from the influence of human culture, language, social reinforcement, and other experiential biases. |
Thomas R. Zentall is the DiSilvestro Professor of Arts and Sciences in Psychology. He was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the Université de Lille, France, and was a visiting professor at the Universidad de Sevilla, Spain, and Keio University, Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Zentall received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. He is currently associate editor of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and has served on the Executive Committee of Division 25 (The Analysis of Behavior) of the American Psychological Association. He also has served as president of Midwestern Psychological Association, president of Divisions 3 (Experimental Psychology) and 6 (Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology) of the American Psychological Association, chair of the Governing Board of the Psychonomic Society, and president of the Comparative Cognition Society. He is president-elect of the Eastern Psychological Association, and in 2010 he gave the Fred Keller Distinguished Lecture at EPA. Dr. Zentall has published research in concept learning, social learning, timing, memory, and choice behavior in humans, pigeons, and dogs. Much of his recent research has focused on paradoxical behavior such as cognitive dissonance and suboptimal choice (gambling) and their explanation in simpler behavioral terms. |
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Generalized Reinforcement: Bridging the Gap Between Lab and Application |
TIMOTHY D. HACKENBERG (Reed College) |
Abstract: From money, gift cards and vouchers to grades, promotions and prizes, generalized reinforcers--reinforcers established via their relationship to two or more sources of reinforcement--abound in everyday life. In addition, generalized reinforcers, in the form of token economies, have been used successfully for years in classroom and clinics. Despite their ubiquity and clinical utility, surprisingly little is known about how generalized reinforcers work--the kinds of experiences needed to establish and maintain them as reinforcers, their relationship to other reinforcers, and so on. This talk will describe some recent laboratory research directed to the topic of generalized reinforcement with pigeons in a miniature, self-contained token economy, using data from studies on cross-price elasticity to illustrate some conditions under which generalized tokens reinforcers come to functionally substitute for other reinforcers. The presentation will discuss the data in relation to economic concepts and consider some implications for translational research. |
Dr. Timothy Hackenberg received a B.A. degree in psychology from the University of California, Irvine, in 1982 and a doctorate in psychology from Temple University in 1987, under the supervision of Dr. Philip Hineline. He held a post-doctoral research position at the University of Minnesota with Dr. Travis Thompson from 1988-90. He served on the faculty in the behavior analysis program at the University of Florida from 1990-2009, and is currently a professor of psychology at Reed College in Portland, OR. He has served on the board of directors of the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, of the Society for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior, as associate editor of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, as president of Division 25 of the American Psychological Association, as the experimental representative to the ABAI Council, and as the director of the ABAI Science Board. His major research interests are in the area of behavioral economics and comparative cognition, with a particular emphasis on decision making and token reinforcement systems. In work funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, he and his students have developed methods for cross-species comparisons in adaptive choice and social behavior. He is blessed with a talented cadre of students, and has the good fortune to teach courses he cares about. |
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