Safety signals provide "relief" through predicting the absence of an aversive event. At issue is whether these signals also act as instrumental reinforcers. Four experiments were conducted using a free-operant lever-press avoidance paradigm in which each press avoided shock and was followed by the presentation of a 5-sec auditory safety…

A range of behavior--much deemed problematic by society--is treated with behavioral methods or psychotropic medications. Although the processes associated with behavioral interventions have been investigated using conceptual, experimental, and applied analyses, less is known about the behavioral processes associated with the use of psychotropic…

The Treatment Evaluation Project was established to evaluate the feasibility of using behavioral treatment in conjunction with methadone maintenance to improve the effectiveness of methadone treatment. Over 100 outpatients were accepted into treatment and randomly assigned to one of four behavioral treatment modalities in addition to the usual…