The performance of developing zebrafish in both classical and operant conditioning assays was tested with a particular focus on the emergence of these learning behaviors during development. Strategically positioned visual cues paired with electroshocks were used in two fully automated assays to investigate both learning paradigms. These allow the…

We investigated the involvement of PKA and PKC signaling in a negatively reinforced operant learning paradigm in "Aplysia", learning that food is inedible (LFI). In vivo injection of PKA or PKC inhibitors blocked long-term LFI memory formation. Moreover, a persistent phase of PKA activity, although not PKC activity, was necessary for long-term…

Summarizes research projects on infant behavior conducted during the 1960's and includes an extensive list of references. (AJ)

A major concern of this report was to compare the effect of three verbal reinforcement combinations (VRCs) on the rate at which children learn a simultaneous two-choice discrimination problem. The experiments were designed to test the following: (1) whether relative effectiveness of the VRCs was dependent upon task complexity or subject age; (2)…

One hundred twenty-eight preschool boys were subjects in a 4x2x2 factorial design to investigate the change in reinforcer efficacy as a function of prior stimulus exposure. The factors were: (1) amount of repetition, 5, 25, 45, or 65; (2) reinforcer, good or bell; and (3) satiator, good or bell. Two additional groups were run as control groups to…

An attempt is made to determine whether a behaviorally-oriented conditioning approach, "covert sensitization," is more effective in the treatment of alcoholism than the commonly used problem-solving approach, and whether female counselors employing covert sensitization were more successful than males. Thirty-two subjects selected on…

This article presents an interpretation of autoshaping, and positive and negative automaintenance, based on a neural-network model. The model makes no distinction between operant and respondent learning mechanisms, and takes into account knowledge of hippocampal and dopaminergic systems. Four simulations were run, each one using an "A-B-A" design…

This study asked whether the concurrent reinforcement of behavioral variability facilitates learning to emit a difficult target response. Sixty students repeatedly pressed sequences of keys, with an originally infrequently occurring target sequence consistently being followed by positive feedback. Three conditions differed in the feedback given to…

The effectiveness of positive and negative evaluative comments for children's learning was assessed in a two-choice discrimination task. Results indicate that negative comments after incorrect responses greatly facilitated learning while positive comments after correct responses had little effect. To explain the findings, a naturalistic analysis…

The results of a group of studies, the objective of which was to clarify the conditions that account for the effectiveness of verbal approbation, are reported. Among the most significant findings were: (1) that the reinforcement properties of verbal approval are susceptible to distortion, misinterpretation or enhancement and must be applied in a…

Results of an experiment with 6-month-old infants showed that response-independent auditory-visual reinforcement can elicit learned responses and that action-consequence learning in infants may consist of a combination of elicitation and conditioning. (Author/JMB)

This study on operant conditioning showed that both groups showed significant improvement in reading skills from pretest to posttest, but that the reinforced group showed significantly more improvement than the nonreinforced group. (Author)

Results of this study indicate that learning occurred only under immediate reinforcement and that there was no developmental trend in the ability to withstand the detrimental effects of delayed reinforcement. (WY)

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between the theories of B.F. Skinner and Carl R. Rogers. In sections 2 and 3, the author discusses the Skinnerian and Rogerian theories by selecting and explicating key elements and delineating the general, comprehensive, theoretical position of each. Sections 4 and 5 present each man's…