Variability as a subject matter in a science of behavior: reply to commentaries (original) (raw)
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The Psychological Record, 2013
This study aimed to assess the role of reinforced behavioral variability in the learning of a 6-digit target sequence (211212) with 3 groups of human participants (n = 39). For the first group (Control), only the target sequence was reinforced. For the second group (Any), the target sequence was reinforced, and any sequence other than the target sequence could be reinforced on a variable interval 60-s schedule. For the third group (Variable), the target sequence was reinforced, and any sequence other than the target sequence could be reinforced on a variable interval 60-s schedule, if it met a variability criterion. The Control group produced the target sequence significantly more often than the Variable group by the end of the experimental sessions. These findings contradict previous studies with rats that have shown that reinforcement of behavioral variability facilitates the learning of difficult response sequences but are consistent with results from previous studies with humans. Potential reasons for this disparity are discussed.
ReinfoRced BehavioRal vaRiaBility in humans
This study aimed to assess the role of reinforced behavioral variability in the learning of a 6-digit target sequence (211212) with 3 groups of human participants (n = 39). For the first group (Control), only the target sequence was reinforced. For the second group (Any), the target sequence was reinforced, and any sequence other than the target sequence could be reinforced on a variable interval 60-s schedule. For the third group (Variable), the target sequence was reinforced, and any sequence other than the target sequence could be reinforced on a variable interval 60-s schedule, if it met a variability criterion. The Control group produced the target sequence significantly more often than the Variable group by the end of the experimental sessions. These findings contradict previous studies with rats that have shown that reinforcement of behavioral variability facilitates the learning of difficult response sequences but are consistent with results from previous studies with humans. Potential reasons for this disparity are discussed.
Can people behave "randomly?": The role of feedback
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1986
Experimental psychologists generally maintain that people cannot behave randomly. The present experiment asked students to generate random sequences of two numbers on the keyboard of a computer terminal. At first, all subjects' sequences differed significantly from random, thereby replicating the findings of the literature. But when given feedback from 5 or 10 statistical descriptors, the subjects learned to generate sequences that were indistinguishable, according to these statistics, from computergenerated random numbers. Randomlike behavior can therefore be learned. When asked to behave randomly, people generally fail (for reviews, see Tune, 1964a, 1964b; Wagenaar, 1972). An experiment, by Bakan (1960) is a good illustration of the methods used in tests of "random" behavior. Seventy undergraduates were asked "to produce a series of 'heads' and 'tails' such as they might expect to occur if an unbiased coin were tossed in an unbiased manner for a total of 300 independent tosses." The subjects filled in "H" or "T" boxes on a form. Analysis of the frequencies of runs and triplets showed that responses differed from those expected by chance. The failure of human subjects to behave randomly is a robust finding. The number of alternative responses have varied from 2,
Reinforced Variability in Animals and People Implications for Adaptive Action
Although reinforcement often leads to repetitive, even stereotyped responding, that is not a necessary outcome. When it depends on variations, reinforcement results in responding that is diverse, novel, indeed unpredictable, with distributions sometimes approaching those of a random process. This article reviews evidence for the powerful and precise control by reinforcement over behavioral variability, evidence obtained from human and animal-model studies, and implications of such control. For example, reinforcement of variability facilitates learning of complex new responses, aids problem solving, and may contribute to creativity. Depression and autism are characterized by abnormally repetitive behaviors, but individuals afflicted with such psychopathologies can learn to vary their behaviors when reinforced for so doing. And reinforced variability may help to solve a basic puzzle concerning the nature of voluntary action.
Behavioral Variability as Avoidance Behavior
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2017
Link para download: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jeab.293/full This study aimed to investigate whether variable patterns of responses can be acquired and maintained by negative reinforcement under an avoidance contingency. Six male Wistar rats were exposed to sessions in which behavioral variability was reinforced according to a Lag contingency: Sequences of three responses on two levers had to differ from one, two or three previous sequences for shocks to be avoided (Lag 1, Lag 2 and Lag 3, respectively). Performance under the Lag conditions was compared with performance on a Yoke condition in which the animals received the same reinforcement frequency and distribution as in the Lag condition but behavioral variability was not required. The results showed that most of the subjects varied their sequences under the Lag contingencies, avoiding shocks with relatively high probability (≥ 0.7). Under the Yoke procedure, responding continued to occur with high probability, but the behavioral variability decreased. These results suggest that behavioral variability can be negatively reinforced.
Operant variability and the power of reinforcement
The Behavior Analyst Today, 2009
Reinforcers contingent on response variability exert powerful and precise control over levels of variability, from stereotypy to stochasticity. This paper reviews how variability-contingent reinforcers interact with non-contingent, eliciting events to influence the variability of operant responses. Relationships to stimulus control, choice, acquisition of new responses, voluntary action, autism, and ADHD are discussed.
Operant Variability and Voluntary Action
Psychological Review, 2010
A behavior-based theory identified 2 characteristics of voluntary acts. The first, extensively explored in operant-conditioning experiments, is that voluntary responses produce the reinforcers that control them. This bidirectional relationship-in which reinforcer depends on response and response on reinforcerdemonstrates the functional nature of the voluntary act. The present article focuses on the second characteristic: a similar bidirectional relationship between reinforcement and the predictability/ unpredictability of voluntary acts. Support for the theory comes from 2 areas of research. The first shows that levels of behavioral variability-from highly predictable to randomlike-are directly influenced by reinforcers. Put another way, variability is an operant dimension, analogous to response rate and force. The second source of support comes from psychophysical experiments in which human participants judged the degree to which "choices" by virtual actors on a computer screen appeared to be voluntary. The choices were intermittently reinforced according to concurrently operating schedules. The actors' behaviors appeared to most closely approximate voluntary human choices when response distributions matched reinforcer distributions (an indication of functionality) and when levels of variability, from repetitive to random, changed with reinforcement contingencies. Thus, voluntary acts are characterized by reinforcement-controlled functionality and unpredictability.