The effects of reinforcement and extinction on response variability and stimulus generalization in the punching and kicking techniques of 2 martial arts students were evaluated across drill and sparring conditions. During both conditions, the students were asked to demonstrate different techniques in response to an instructor's punching attack.…

In two experiments in a Morris pool, rats were trained to find a hidden platform which was located in a specific position in relation to two objects, B and F, which were presented together, one in front of the other. One object, B, was just above the platform (a beacon for the platform, the critical object) while the second object, F, was above…

Following training on an easy size discrimination, pigeons were matched on the basis of stimulus control by the positive stimulus following generalization tests. Three subjects were immediately retrained on a more difficult discrimination along the same dimension, while the remaining three subjects were retrained after a six-month delay. The…

In this article, the author discusses and presents seven possibilities that describe how symmetry principles are reflected in behavior analysis. First, if there are apparently no functional distinctions to be made between positive and negative reinforcement, then reinforcer effectiveness (by various measures) is invariant under a simple inversion…

Imitative responding was first established and then reinforced only in the presence of one stimulus and not in the presence of another. Subjects were three institutionalized, severely subnormal boys. (Author)

Recent work from an embodied-cognition perspective suggests that symbolic understanding involves bodily actions. Indeed, laboratory evidence and cultural phenomena such as magic rituals and symbolic aggression show that the behaviors evoked by a word and its referent can be quite similar to each other. In other circumstances, however, words and…

This study examines the possibility that the relational stimulus arising from being imitated serves a reinforcing function. A total of 48 preschool children performed a task in which some neutral stimuli were repeatedly associated either with an adult's matching the subject's behavior or the adult's mismatching the subject's behavior. (Author/GO)

The techniques of fading response prompts with severely handicapped students are described, comparative studies related to the methods are reviewed, and a framework for future research is proposed. Among methods considered are decreasing assistance, time delay, and graduated guidance. (CL)

Three groups of children, thirty in each group (3-4, 5-6, and 7-8 years), were shown an ambiguous color labeled green or blue or unlabeled. They were then given a generalization test to determine if the provided label would produce differences in the shape of the generalization gradient. (JH)

Investigated simultaneous occurrence of emergent stimulus-response relations (functional equivalence) and stimulus-stimulus relations (stimulus equivalence). Trained 4- and 5-year olds to emit specified responses to pairs of stimuli in one setting (original training) and to emit other responses to one member of each pair in another setting…