The concept of reinforcement is at least incomplete and almost certainly incorrect. An alternative way of organizing our understanding of behavior may be built around three concepts: "allocation," "induction," and "correlation." Allocation is the measure of behavior and captures the centrality of choice: All behavior entails choice and consists of…

Three experiments evaluated whether the apparent reflexivity effect reported by Sweeney and Urcuioli (2010) for pigeons might, in fact, be transitivity. In Experiment 1, pigeons learned symmetrically reinforced hue-form (A-B) and form-hue (B-A) successive matching. Those also trained on form-form (B-B) matching responded more to hue comparisons…

In Experiment 1, 4 pigeons were trained on a multiple chain schedule in which the initial link was a variable-interval (VI) 20-s schedule signalled by a red or green center key, and terminal links required four responses made to the left (L) and/or right (R) keys. In the REPEAT component, signalled by red keylights, only LRLR terminal-link…

An operant conditioning situation for the blow fly ("Protophormia terrae novae") is described. Individual flies are trained to enter and reenter a hole as the operant response. Only a few sessions of contingent reinforcement are required to increase response rates. When the response is no longer followed by food, the rate of entering the hole…

An experiment with adult humans investigated the effects of response-contingent money loss (response-cost punishment) on monetary-reinforced responding. A yoked-control procedure was used to separate the effects on responding of the response-cost contingency from the effects of reduced reinforcement density. Eight adults pressed buttons for money…

Four pigeons were trained in a procedure in which concurrent-schedule food ratios changed unpredictably across seven unsignaled components after 10 food deliveries. Additional green-key stimulus presentations also occurred on the two alternatives, sometimes in the same ratio as the component food ratio, and sometimes in the inverse ratio. In eight…

Episodic and sustained increases in heart rate and mean arterial blood pressure can occur with recurring patterns of schedule-controlled behavior. Most previous studies were conducted under fixed-ratio schedules, which maintained a consistent high rate of responding that alternated with periods of no responding during times when the schedule was…

Four rats' choices between two levers were differentially reinforced using a runs-test algorithm. On each trial, a runs-test score was calculated based on the last 20 choices. In Experiment 1, the onset of stimulus lights cued when the runs score was smaller than criterion. Following cuing, the correct choice was occasionally reinforced with food,…

The development of position and stimulus biases often occurs during initial training on matching-to-sample tasks. Furthermore, without intervention, these biases can be maintained via intermittent reinforcement provided by matching-to-sample contingencies. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a correction procedure designed to…

Token reinforcement procedures and concepts are reviewed and discussed in relation to general principles of behavior. The paper is divided into four main parts. Part I reviews and discusses previous research on token systems in relation to common behavioral functions--reinforcement, temporal organization, antecedent stimulus functions, and…

Three experiments were conducted with rats in which responses on one lever (labeled the functional lever) produced reinforcers after an unsignaled delay period that reset with each response during the delay. Responses on a second, nonfunctional, lever did not initiate delays, but, in the first and third experiments, such responses during the last…

When humans predict criterion events based on probabilistic predictors, they often lend excessive weight to the predictor and insufficient weight to the base rate of the criterion event. In an operant analysis, using a matching-to-sample paradigm, Goodie and Fantino (1996) showed that humans exhibit base-rate neglect when predictors are associated…

Evidence of how behavioral research and technology have evolved together abounds in the history of the "Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior" ("JEAB"). Technology from outside the discipline (exogenous) from such disciplines as electronics and computer science has been adapted for use in behavioral research. Technology from within the…

Two experiments with rats examined the dynamics of well-learned response sequences when reinforcement contingencies were changed. Both experiments contained four phases, each of which reinforced a 2-response sequence of lever presses until responding was stable. The contingencies then were shifted to a new reinforced sequence until responding was…

Two experiments with pigeons investigated the effects of contingencies between interresponse times (IRTs) and the transitions between the components of 2- and 4-component chained schedules (Experiments 1 and 2, respectively). The probability of component transitions varied directly with the most recent (Lag 0) IRT in some experimental conditions…